CHAPTER 2: The Return

The first thing that Ellana noticed as she woke was the pounding of a waterfall; the second thing was the crushing weight was gone from her chest. Perhaps it was fortuitous the only person to witness the return of the Inquisitor was Arcanist Dagna. The rift disappeared with a shaking flick of Ellana's hand. The mysterious woman with red hair so very reminiscent of Leliana was still unconscious, though thankfully no longer putting pressure on Ellana's damaged ribs. With her legs splayed out, Ellana realised that the woman was actually quite tall, almost two heads taller than herself if they were standing upright. Qunari? Ellana wondered for a moment but disregarded it. This woman was clearly a round-eared human…just a giant one, like the Avvar from the Fallow Mire.

"Dagna, I need–," Ellana managed before she felt a sharp pain on her arm as Dagna expertly took a tissue sample and placed it on her workstation.

"Sorry! Couldn't help myself. Oh Maker, I'd never dreamed of seeing a fade rift like that before! And you came out of it. Your mark is different. You were just in the Fade. What happened at Adamant? How are you here? Who's the gorgeous ginger? She's HUGE! What is happening right now!?" Dagna's rapid questions were putting a strain on Ellana's patience. She loved the Dwarven Arcanist, but sometimes she was a little too much in situations that required a softer touch.

"Let me catch my breath first," Ellana said with huff as she slowly crawled to her feet. Ellana did some quick thinking as she looked around. Harritt wasn't here, so that was a plus. "Dagna, I need you to fetch Josephine and Leliana. Bring nobody else. Interrupt whatever they're doing, because this has become the priority. I'm going to lock the door behind you. Have Leliana dispatch a messenger to tell Harritt to take the rest of the day off and not come to the Undercroft. We should not be disturbed."

Dagna looked into Ellana's eyes and registered this wasn't a moment for more questions. "Yes Inquisitor. I'll be back before you know it! Should we bring a healer? You know, for your ribs and…everything else? You look kinda rough all over."

"Bring Mother Giselle if you must, and maybe Dalish and Stitches. My inner circle too," Ellana shrugged and just lay back down on the floor. Dagna just nodded to herself before sprinting off to do her Inquisitor's bidding. Ellana observed the steady rise and fall of the red-head's breaths, wondering what the fresh hell she had just gotten herself into again.

a few minutes later…

"Dagna, the Bann Trevelyan of Ostwick is not a patient man. He wants us to protect his daughter from the wrath of the remaining Grand Clerics. "

"Oh trust me Lady Montilyet, this is a real emergency. But why?" Dagna couldn't help but ask.

Leliana joined them as they crossed the main hall. "Because his daughter Evelyn Trevelyan accepted Rivain's bounty to hunt down the remaining Templars and Seekers who participated in the Annulment of Dairsmuid. The young woman has been surprisingly effective. Though I suppose being an arcane warrior would lend itself to such a grizzly task."

"Damn. Well, I'm…I'm glad somebody is doing something about that atrocity," Dagna added with quiet venom. Both human women took notice of the stark change in the normally bubbly dwarf. "I had friends that the Templars butchered there." Dagna added once she recognized the silence her earlier input had caused. "Some of them were still children. Children. We are going to protect this Lady Trevelyan right, Sister Leliana?"

"That will be for the Inquisitor to decide," Leliana replied crisply. "Though I think she'll share your perspective. She did show support the rebellion after all when she spurned the Templars. We shall bring Bann Trevelyan's concerns to her upon her return from Adamant."

"You summoned me, Sister Nightingale?" Mother Giselle approached.

"I did. Though Dagna was rather secretive about why." Leliana looked down at the Dwarven girl she'd met ten years ago.

"I'm here!" Dalish announced as she skipped up to them, her Keeper's robes flourished around her. She was dragging the Bulls' Chargers' other elven member, Skinner with her. The Orlesian elf wasn't looking too pleased about that, or about being summoned by shems. Iron Bull walked behind him, accompanied by a harried-looking Dorian and worried Sera. Blackwall brought up the rear with his trademark stern look of determination etched on his face.

"We're at your disposal my Ladies," Stitches said respectfully while lightly elbowing his elven compatriot to show a little more decorum. Dalish just grinned while the Inquisitor's inner circle just looked to Leliana with questioning eyes.

Cole appeared at Sera's side, but he completely ignored the people around him. He was looking through the door to the Undercroft with wider eyes than usual. "Can't stop, can't stop shaking, why? I'm alive. I'm home. But I see that monster EATING me when I close my eyes," Cole shook his head and before anyone else could react to the horrifying words passing his lips, he continued, " Though Darkness closes, I am Shielded by flame. But it hurts, why does it hurt so much? My skin is melting. I don't want to die, but I want it to stop, just stop. Why can't the darkness shield me from the flame instead?" Cole's words brought chills to everyone gathered there. Sera actively leaned away from him.

"About that…" Dagna trailed off as she opened the Undercroft with her key. She wasn't even going to begin to think about what the Inquisitor's oddest companion had just said. The sight that greeted the group was not one that they saw everyday.

Ellana was sitting up, looking very much worse for wear. Leliana flinched at the taste the iron in the air. The Inquisitor's arms were covered in blood. They'd be perfectly functional, but the angry pink ropes of scar tissue were already forming, and they'd be there for the rest of her life.

"Ellana," Josephine breathed before rushing to her paramour's side. The Inquisitor didn't rise, but Josephine paid not an ounce of care to her frilly dress now pooled on the ground as she hugged her beloved.

"I'm alright…somehow. I knew I'd come back to you," Ellana said.

"Care to explain?" Leliana asked with her signature raised eyebrow. The shock of what exactly was going on registered in the higher pitch of her voice.

"Can you check up on my arms Mother? I think the health potion has done all it can," Ellana said softly.

The next several minutes were spent stitching up the Inquisitor and bandaging the head of the tall woman. The woman had burn scars covering most of her body, though Dalish's definitely-not-magic-elven healing methods rendered the horrifying injuries into light webbing of pink. It was still conspicuous, but it was far better than it was minutes before.

"What are you doing here? How are you here?" Leliana asked. But before the Inquisitor could respond, Leliana quickly turned to Stitches, Skinner, Mother Giselle, and Dalish. "I do not need to warn you of the importance of keeping this conversation secret, no?" The friendly tone she used just made the underlying threat worse somehow.

"Leliana," Giselle placated, but was stopped by the icy look she received from the spymaster, and wisely silenced herself.

"Am I clear?" Leliana reiterated.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Very well."

"Alright then, you daft tit."

"Of course!"

"You have my silence."

"Absolute secrecy."

"Hnn."

Dalish prodded Skinner to give the spymaster better answer. Skinner said something terse in Orlesian and Leliana nodded back, satisfied.

Ellana looked up at her Inner Circle sans Varric and Cassandra and then at Leliana, Josephine before starting her tale, "I don't exactly know the outcome of the battle. I am optimistic though, since I was able to close the rift from which the Nightmare was controlling the Demon army. I'll explain that later. The demons should be dealt with, and the Warden mages freed," Ellana began explaining. "The non-mage Wardens were helping us by the end. I believe Cullen was able to hold things together. Stroud should be able to manage the remaining Wardens," Ellana sighed and her jaw clenched.

"Warden Commander Clarel was bitten nearly in half by Corypheus' dragon, but she managed to drive it off with her last bolt of lighting. She's dead. I think she powered the final blast with her lifeblood at the end. It blew apart the bridge we were standing on, and we fell. I opened a rift in the veil before hitting the ground." Ellana looked up and met each of their eyes before resting on her lover's. Josephine stroked her cheek with a small smile, encouraging Ellana to continue, which she did. "Myself, Warden Stroud, Cassandra, Marian Hawke, Varric, and S-Solas fell into the Fade."

Ellana ignored the gasps of horror and shock and continued, because she knew she didn't have the strength to explain the next part if she stopped to think about it too much. "We met a spirit, she guided us through the Fade to recover my memories of the Conclave. She was in the image of the Divine. Cassandra couldn't tell the difference, so I'm not sure if it was her soul, or something else holy, but she made sure we got out alive…well, most of us." Ellana's tears started gathering in her eyes. They all stiffened at that. Iron Bull clenched his fists and Sera's face paled.

"Solas is dead. He pushed me out of the way of a T-Terror demon and was slashed so deep. He said things, before he passed. He-He used the last of his magic to do this." Ellana raised her left arm. The Mark wasn't exactly gone, but it was changed.

"I'm sorry," Leliana said quietly. "How is the Mark different now?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Ellana confessed. She didn't notice the flicker of emotion on Josephine's face. She herself had asked Ellana not too long ago how it felt, and now she knew Ellana had lied to her face about how it wasn't hurting her anymore. She raised her arm, showing them the vines of green running from her hand all down her arm and beyond. "There were other things he said. I'm still…" Ellana looked between the two Chantry-affiliated women in front of her. "He revealed so much that will shatter the foundations of the Chantry, and the Dalish's beliefs. He's…he's one of the old gods of the People." Ellana looked to Dalish as she said this, beseeching the other Dalish-raised elf to understand the magnitude of the moment.

"What?" Dalish asked with awe. "But that's…that's not possible." Dalish's normal humour was absent in her voice.

Ellana looked up at Dalish and said, "He's. He was the Dread Wolf, Fen'Harel."

Nobody knew exactly what to say to that, but Dagna patted her on the shoulder and Ellana gave the dwarf a small smile. Dalish was left reeling, but Bull put a comforting hand on her shoulder, keeping her steady. "We were almost out of the Fade when we met the Nightmare in battle. It was an ancient and nigh godly powerful demon that was doing Corypheus' bidding. It fed on the fear of all Thedas. It was the one that faked the Calling in all the Wardens here in the South. The Spirit that aided us bought us a few moments by driving away one of the Nightmare's servants," Ellana shuddered so violently that both Stitches and Josephine grabbed her shoulder on each side to steady her. "Cassandra and Varric exited the rift the Wardens had made from the other side. And then the Nightmare's servant rallied. Stroud, Hawke, and myself were trapped on the other side."

Leliana had a bad feeling in her gut where this was going. "And you did the stupid thing, didn't you," the spymaster supplied. Her words weren't exactly cutting, but sad.

"Ellana, tell me you didn't," Josephine begged as tears filled her eyes.

The Dalish Inquisitor looked up at her love and said, "Solas had just died in my arms for my mistake in combat. I wasn't going to let anybody else die for me." Ellana's voice trembled, but there was an edge there that brooked no argument.

"Surely Stroud and Hawke didn't just leave you there," Giselle gasped.

Ellana shook her head and chuckled darkly. "I…I used blood magic to force them both through the rift to relative safety before closing it behind them, severing the Nightmare's control over all the Warden mages. They so betrayed, but I didn't know how else to save them," Ellana added with a sad sigh. There were tears running down her cheeks, and she sniffed a few times before regaining her composure.

She looked up at the others, waiting to be judged. "And you stayed to slay the Nightmare didn't you," Dagna whispered.

Ellana Lavellan shuddered again and nodded violently. "Yes. I…I thought I was going to…" she gestured helplessly to her arms which were badly marred even with the medical attention she had received. The others now realized how she had gotten those ghastly wounds. "Its pincers were around me. The fight was over, and I lost. I was being drawn into its maw when…" Ellana trailed off and looked at the unconscious burn victim with the red hair. Josephine nearly threw up at the look of abject terror in her lover's eyes. She had believed she was going to die alone and in agony, devoured by her greatest fear.

"But you're alright, right? You're here. You made it back," Sera piped up. The city elf would never admit it, but seeing Lavellan's eyes as she described what might very well be the worst experience of her life was terrifying in a way Sera hadn't felt since living on the streets of Denerim. If the Inquisitor was that scared, then what was going to happen to the rest of them?

Ellana was pulled out of her memory by Sera's desperate words. "Yeah. Yeah, I made it. My arm…it did this thing. A pillar of veil fire erupted, it disintegrated the giant spider. And then she appeared. She crashed down onto me, and she was hurt. The burns were so bad, and her head hit the ground as she landed. I made her drink the last potion before using the Anchor to open another rift. And it lead me here." Ellana finished with a long sigh, and leaned into her Josie.

"So…we have no idea who the Fade chick is then?" Iron Bull asked for clarification.

Sera jumped on the opportunity for banter, desperately so. "She's…she's well fit." Leliana sent a disapproving glance at Sera but internally was forced to agree. The abnormally tall woman was quite a beauty.

"She was burning," Cole spoke up. "In her mind, I saw a roaring fire, and she was in the middle of it. A flash of red and green and then darkness," Cole looked quizzically at the woman.

"Though Darkness closes, I'm shielded by flame," Leliana repeated Cole's earlier words. "That's scripture. It came from her head outside yes? Not Ellana?"

Cole nodded but didn't say any more. "Look," Dagna began, "I think we need to get her to a bed, right? I mean, gawking at her is all good, but she needs proper clothes and a bath from the look of things. You do too your Worship," all eyes were drawn to the shortest among them. What kind of world was it where the neurotic enchanting prodigy was the voice of reason?

"You are quite right, Dagna," Leliana said.

"Put her in my quarters," Ellana said. At the befuddled looks she was getting, she said, "Bull can carry her up there, and it's the least likely place to be disturbed. If you don't want people to know about her, you two can clear the hall citing something or other. You should also send a raven to our people at Adamant telling them I'm you know…still alive. Also send one to Hawke. I doubt she'll stick around when her people are still mostly in the Free Marches and her information has ran its course. Also, she probably thinks I'm dead because of her, and I don't want her to think that. Send one to Stroud as well. He'll blame himself forever too." Leliana nodded at the Inquisitor's words and went to exit the room.

"I'll let you know when you can cross the hall with that one," Leliana said to Bull who nodded as he gathered the mystery woman in his arms. After a couple of minutes, he too was gone.

Josephine pulled Ellana to her feet and their kiss was desperate and fearful and so very relived. Most of everyone else cleared out after that. Well, Dagna, and Sera stayed, because they enjoyed the show and had zero shame.

"Don't stop on our account," Dagna said sincerely as she walked over to her workstation.

Josephine rolled her eyes as Ellana smiled into her collarbone. Sera just grinned lecherously before slinking out, mentioning something about 'I'll be in my room.'

"Josie, I love you so much. So much. I…I…" Ellana stuttered as she tried to speak.

"Ellana just breath. The thought that I almost lost you today…" Josephine took a ragged breath as she looked into Ellana's wet eyes. "I don't have words for how scared that makes me. But I want you to know you are my heart."

Ellana leans up to kiss Josie again, softer this time. "You know what, I'm actually gonna just go." Dagna decided aloud as she too exited the Undercroft. Josie walked over and locked the door and turned back to her love with a feral light in her eyes.

"Do you have the strength to sit on that table over there?" Josephine asked as she walked back to her Inquisitor.

"Only just," Ellana replied with a quirked eyebrow. She squeaked when Josephine picked her up and placed her on said tinting table and stood between Ellana's legs. Ellana's grin of anticipation only widened as Josephine laid her lips on the elf's pulse while her hands removed her trousers. Josephine knelt and smiled up at her love with a tenderness that was foreign to Ellana in situations like these.

"Let me show you, Ellana." Josephine smiled as Ellana's noises of pleasure echoed around the Undercroft as loudly as the waterfall.