Chapter Text
Evelyn
30 Harvestmere, 9:41 Dragon - now
Evelyn Trevelyan looked through the flames at the approaching, unnaturally large, figure. The pain ricocheting through her body was nothing in comparison to the terror that froze her limbs. From a distance, he had seemed so small but mere feet in front of her, she felt entirely dwarfed by the evil Magister. He was deformed – twisted by red Lyrium – and it only contributed to his unsettling visage. Evvy pushed herself up from the ground, wincing as she did so, and ignored the crippling pain in her ribs. She needed to focus on this situation; on distracting this monster long enough for the survivors of Haven to make it through the mountains; on surviving herself. Focus.
30 Harvestmere, 9:41 Dragon - 1 hour prior
The sound from outside the Chantry's doors chilled Evvy's blood more than the crisp cold from the Frostback Mountains had for the past few months. She closed her eyes to the roaring, to the screams, and to the sound of death as if doing so would block it all out. When she opened them again, it was to look at the survivors – what few of them there were – huddling in the far corner in terror. Her brown gaze then swept over to her advisors and companions as they all talked over each other to try to come up with a solution. As always, she stood quietly off to the side as she took in every angle that was presented. No one fully listened to each other and so Evvy listened to everyone. Cullen argued with Cassandra about the best course of action, Josephine was speaking with Mother Giselle about what to do with the injured, Leliana put her opinions in the lulls between Cassandra and Cullen. All the while, the boy who appeared at the gate was leaning over Roderick – who Evvy was fairly certain would not make it to see whatever ended up happening.
The soft voice of the newcomer broke through the arguing and chatter, and they all held their breath as he spoke of the Archdemon and how the Elder One only wanted her. Evvy stepped up to the circle of people, her focus entirely on this strange boy as she said, "If it will save these people, he can have me." A strangled sound came from her right where Cullen stood and she spotted him gripping his sword, but she said nothing.
"It won't. He wants to kill you. No one else matters, but he will crush them. Kill them anyways. I don't like him." The simplicity of the statement would have made Evvy laugh if the situation wasn't as dire as it was. Cullen managed a disbelieving start of a sentence but then seemed to decide it wasn't worth his breath when they could be discussing what was the next possible solution.
And it seemed she and Cullen were on the same wavelength. Evvy hated the defeated feeling that crept over her at the realization they would have to bury Haven in order to stop this monster from gaining power. She held Cullen's gaze for another moment and was about to make that call when the boy spoke up, seemingly for Roderick. As the Chancellor spoke of tunnels that could safely get them out of Haven, Evvy lingered in the peripheral of the group. She studied each of them in turn, knowing that this was it. She was not going to come back from this. But she would do it. To save everyone, she would do it.
"Will it work?" she asked Cullen after Roderick had finished his explanation.
Cullen looked like he swallowed something sharp. "Possibly. If he shows us the path. But what of your escape?"
Heavy, oppressive silence came over everyone as understanding passed through each person there. Evvy straightened her spine, refusing to show fear or weakness. Her hand tightened on her staff and she kept her gaze forward as they all moved to follow Roderick's guidance. All that was left was her and Cullen.
"Let that thing hear you," he said, but she was sure there was more he wanted to say. She could see it in his eyes. Then he was gone and so was she and it didn't matter.
30 Harvestmere, 9:41 Dragon - now
The pain rioted through her as Corypheus tried to extract the mark – the anchor – from her hand. She'd never experienced such visceral pain before and Evvy was no stranger to pain. This pain felt like she was being cleaved into two – her soul physically splitting from her body – and when he released her, Evvy let out a loud and strangled cry of relief. She barely heard what he said – something about interrupting a ritual and Andraste dooming her to her death – as she counted her breaths to focus and shift the pain elsewhere. She would either be dead shortly or able to focus more fully on healing herself, but for right now she needed to fight him off – for Haven's sake. She didn't have a chance to figure out her next step, because suddenly Corypheus had her lifted off the ground by her arm. Evvy's feet dangled beneath her like she was a homemade rag doll. Vaguely the image reminded her of the early years of her childhood – before she was sent to the Ostwick circle – when she would play with the doll her mother made her. She took better care of the doll than she was currently being handled.
"Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods, and it was empty." Evvy's eyes widened at his words, but they didn't have a chance to fully sink in because she was suddenly flying through the air to the nearest solid object – the one remaining trebuchet. Corypheus continued toward her. All Evvy wanted to do was vomit up the taste of blood from her mouth, but she focused enough to pick up a nearby sword, pulling herself into a standing position. She was so close, she just needed a few more moments – she just needed the signal from Cullen that they were clear and away and safe.
Vaguely, she heard Corypheus speak of killing her but all she could see was the beauty of a flare in the distance. For the first time since the attack started, Evvy felt a surge of hope. They were safe. And now she had one last goal. Ignoring the screaming in her entire body, Evvy looked at Corypheus with a face of defiance. "Your arrogance blinds you. Good to know. If I'm dying… it is not today!" She kicked the lever and screamed in pain, the sound mixing with the release of the trebuchet. It took no time at all for the snow to avalanche toward them. Corypheus fled with his damned dragon, and Evvy took off at a hobbling run before falling down, down, down a mining shaft.
The world went black upon impact.
27 Solace, 9:41 Dragon - after the first war room meeting
Evvy stared down at the map in front of her with the small tokens to represent their forces, Leliana's people, and protected areas. Not for the first time she wondered how she got here. So much happened in so few days and Evvy didn't have a moment to fully comprehend it. From the moment she agreed to help the Inquisition, her days were nonstop – any rest was minimal, any privacy was limited. Sometimes Evvy felt like a prisoner with special privileges. She understood that wasn't the case and that she was being needlessly dramatic, but she felt she deserved the right to be a little dramatic considering her circumstances. And considering what the Inquisition advisors were asking her to do.
Of course she would help them; that hadn't even been in question. Evvy wanted to help as much as she could; she just wasn't sure how much that actually was.
The mark crackled on her hand and Evvy glanced down at it. It had – mercifully – calmed since closing the first Rift down in the Temple, but the intermediate crackle was still startling and it emitted a low heat that sometimes made Evvy uncomfortable. She didn't complain about it. Trevelyans didn't complain; and Evvy had dealt with worse discomforts and pains anyway. None of them were magical glowing marks that may or may not be the death of her, though, so maybe she earned the right to complain. If she found someone to complain to.
The door to the war room opened and Evvy's attention turned to Cullen Rutherford as he entered, his own attention intent on some papers in his hands. His brow was furrowed, his lips set in a grim line, and he didn't even notice she was there. Evvy didn't say anything, just turned so that she was leaning back against the table, her hands gripping the edge of it. She should say something, but she took the moment of his being unaware of her presence to really study him.
There was absolutely no denying that he was a Templar. It was in the way he stood, the way his hand rested easily on the pommel of his sword; it was how he always seemed to be half on alert; and mostly… it was in the way that Evvy could feel the Lyrium in him calling out to her. That had always been one of the harder things about being in the Circle surrounded by Templars - their use of Lyrium was exorbitant and being so close to them made her feel like her skin buzzed. The other mages struggled with it more than she did. She knew too many mages who would do anything to get a bit of the Lyrium the Templars had stored.
Cullen looked up then and made a surprised sound, pulling Evvy from her thoughts of life in Ostwick. Her fingers gripped the table's edge even harder. "Oh, Herald, I didn't realize anyone was in here." Seemingly having forgotten he was holding a bunch of missives, he reached up to rub at his neck in what Evvy assumed was a nervous action. The missives fell from his hands and scattered all over the floor, the papers rustling and sliding over the stone flooring. "Maker…" he muttered before quickly crouching to the floor to gather them up.
Evvy knelt down as well, grabbing up the papers that were near her. "I hope it's alright that I'm in here," she said simply, extending the papers to him. Cullen took them from her with a sheepish grin.
"Yes, of course; though I can't imagine why you would want to be in here of all places." Cullen stood and shuffled the papers into one hand before offering his other to her in assistance. Evvy looked at the gloved hand in brief hesitation and then took it, allowing him to help her up. He could have yanked her up and off the ground without issue. All of the Templars at Ostwick could do the same – they had before – and normally it would bring a tremor of fear down her spine, but she wasn't concerned he would hurt her; they needed her far too much for him to hurt her.
Evvy leaned back against the table again, putting some space between them. "Better in here than out there. I can only take people staring at me and whispering about me so much before it drives me insane; or insecure. Or both."
"I can only imagine." He set the missives on the table on the other side from her. "I can leave if you'd like? I usually go over reports when we aren't meeting, but if you'd rather I go…"
"No. It's okay. I'll leave."
Cullen nodded and looked down at his reports, signaling to Evvy that it was time for her to leave. She was almost at the door when he said, "Or you could stay. I wouldn't mind the company." Evvy paused and turned over her shoulder to look at him; really look at him. They would likely be sitting in silence and that didn't sound horrible. As she said: better in the war room than out in Haven. They looked at each other silently for a few moments and then Evvy returned to the table to study the tokens. Cullen took a seat in one of the few chairs near the fire and they both sank into a somewhat companionable silence.
30 Harvestmere, 9:41 Dragon - now
The world came back into sharp focus suddenly and all at once. Evvy coughed on an inhale, the air feeling like knives being ripped up and down her throat. Every bone in her body felt like it was crushed, like she was essentially made of paper and flattened. It took energy to roll onto her back and look up at the ceiling of whatever cavern she was in. She hoped to see the sky, but instead saw tumbled boulders and snow. She would give herself another minute and then she would try to draw on whatever mana she could to heal herself to the best of her capabilities. Another minute. That was all.
Her breaths still felt like knives and she coughed again at the same time there was a loud cracking sound coming from above. Her dark eyes shot to the ceiling again and she watched as several of the boulders started to shift, buckling under the weight of whatever else was on top of them. Evvy groaned, tears coming from her eyes as she closed them, and forced herself up. One arm holding her weight, one leg trying to get under her body to propel her forward. The cracking grew louder and panic finally set in her chest. She didn't make it through that fight with Corypheus just to die by an avalanche of boulders and snow.
Barely, Evvy cleared the spot that the debris collapsed to. She scuttled back on her good hand and stared at the pile of rocks, wood, trees, and whatever else managed to nearly kill her. With another glance at the ceiling, she didn't see any other weak points that might crash down on her and so she allowed herself to lean back against the pile of rubble. Okay, Evvy, take a catalog of your injuries… The voice in her head wasn't her own, but rather her best friend's from the Circle. Any time she was hurt, she found Waysen. He was the most advanced healer in their mage level and he wouldn't just heal her, but also try to teach her how to heal herself.
She was pretty sure she'd broken a couple of ribs, her right shoulder hung at a grotesque angle – probably dislocated, and she thought she might have a broken ankle. Those were only the injuries she could see and blatantly feel. She was positive there was internal damage that she needed to get outside help for – and quickly. First things first, let's support that shoulder… Evvy groaned and tipped her head back against a boulder. Be resourceful… Resourceful… She glanced down at her attire, her gaze snagging on the scarf wrapped around her neck. It was covered in blood, but it might do for a sling. She had no other options and so she pulled it from around her neck and set to making a sling that would work. Her arm seared with white hot pain and she didn't bother to stifle the cries. No point. No one was around to hear her.
Good. Now onto your ankle… Magic for this one, Evvy love…
Her mana felt so drained, but she felt the gentle almost flickering buzz beneath her fingertips. Gently, she took her boot off and winced at the sight of her ankle twisted and badly swollen. Healing is about softness but determination. The mana flickered from her fingertips, the light mint color covering her ankle. It was dimmer than it would have been if she were at full power, but it still lessened the pain and just when she thought she wasn't going to have enough mana to mend it, the ankle snapped back into place with a sickening crunch.
Her scream reverberated throughout the cavern.
30 Harvestmere, 9:41 Dragon - 1 hour later
She needn't have wasted all that time and mana on trying to heal herself, because this was how she was going to die – freezing in a blizzard as she stumbled through feet of snow to follow a trail of dead campfires. Evvy wasn't sure why she was even going on, but something spurred her forward – some sort of determination that she clung to desperately. Healing is about softness but determination. She repeated it over and over in her head again with each painful step, breath, movement.
Eventually the blizzard calmed and she was left traipsing through piles of snow without a breeze for flurrying snowflakes. The night was silent now and Evvy didn't know if she was hallucinating the sound of a wolf in the distance or if there actually were wolves, waiting for her to die so they could feast on her. Just a bit longer, she told herself and clenched her jaw to keep the tremors of cold from racking her body any more than they already were. A few meters ahead of her she saw another campfire, but as she drew closer…she could tell it was still warm.
Hope flared in her chest and she pushed forward more.
There was a chasm between two mountains and Evvy thought she saw light flickering from beyond it. She just needed to go a little more. Just a little more. Determination. Her determination was gone. She couldn't fight anymore. She was so tired. So cold. So much in pain. She failed.
Her knees gave out beneath her and she collapsed to the cold snow below.