Asala wore her cloak once more. The days in the Western Approach were hot and dry, but as the sun fell, so too did the temperatures. Unfortunately, she could not utilize the hood to hide her bright white hair-- horns would make that far too difficult, but she did darken it by running Vitaar through it. A gift from Rashaad before they had parted ways, who'd helped to apply it to her face as well. A certain amount of stealth was expected presently, though she wasn't especially known for her cunning.
As expected, Lia, Rhys, and the rest of the scouts had indeed found a hidden entrance into the caverns underneath the fort. Asala and the rest of the group stood presently at its mouth under the cover of darkness with only the moonlight to guide them. From where they stood, they could still make out its walls above them, though not a soul patrolled their particular side. No doubt their friends from Kirkwall and the scouts had something to do with that on the other side. She was not entirely enthused about their plan, but she understood that it was a necessary act. If they could not take the fort, then the Inquisition's forces would have no place to stage, and without their intervention that meant Corypheus would be able to twist the Wardens to his purpose.
Still, she did not enjoy the thought of delving into a cave at night.
Of course, they wouldn't quite be able to do that yet anyway. As hinted by the presence of strange lights even from a distance, the castle was well-protected by magic, and it did not seem to have escaped the Venatori that this tunnel was a weakness. The entrance, plenty wide for any of their number to get through, was currently blocked by a pale purple barrier of some sort. The surface of it shifted and flickered, as though it contained some kind of darker-colored liquid that was constantly flowing in all directions.
Cyrus stepped up beside Asala. He'd let his scarf fall down around his neck, but his hair was so dark it wouldn't stand any chance of giving away his location. His complexion was more likely to do that, in all honesty. He didn't look like a fellow who customarily saw much sun.
He studied the barrier for a moment and snorted. “That's it? Amateurs." Shaking his head, he crossed his arms. “This barrier is not terribly different from the temporary ones you conjure in battle. It is also made from spirit magic. The same should break it, or you can attempt a dispel. Either method will work; you should choose the one you think will be most efficient." Clearly he wasn't actually that concerned about it, or he'd probably have helped, at least. His posture was also very relaxed—maybe that had something to do with how quiet it was out here. It seemed like the chance of getting caught was pretty minimal.
Asala was aware that if he had wanted to, he could have destroyed the thing in a moment. She turned to her hand and tilted her head. The fact that he gave her options didn't help, as she was now second-guessing which method she should try. She turned back to him and frowned, but shook her head and went closer to the barrier. She inspected a moment before she pressed her hand against it, feeling the thrumming energy beneath her skin. She sighed, she wanted to try to overpower the barrier with one of her own, but something told her that that would not work, and was not what Cyrus was looking for. Instead, she wanted to try something different.
She felt the barrier's energy rippling beneath her finger tips, and summoned magic that felt similar. It was a... comfortable feeling, and the magic formed easily in her hand. However, instead of forcing it into a specific shape like one of her own shields, she allowed it to shape itself. The magic injected itself into the barrier, causing it to ripple like a throwing a stone into water. Asala fed more and more of the spirit magic into the barrier, intensifying the rippling until it could no longer sustain itself, popping as a result. She shielded her eyes from the shattering shield, but once it no longer stood, she turned back to Cyrus as she beamed, feeling legitimately proud of herself.
Surprisingly enough, he smiled back. Not as widely, of course, but enough that she noticed it. “Well done." With the others, he advanced forward to enter the cave she'd opened up for them. “Of course, you should mind the breaking part next time—I'd hate to have to try to teach you how to repair your own mangled eye, hm?" He glanced back over his shoulder and arched an eyebrow.
That managed to turn her smile into a frown. Her brows furrowed and she stuck her tongue out at him as he walked by.
"Lovely dwelling our Venatori friends have taken up," Vesryn commented, sliding his tallhelm down into place on his head as they walked. He positioned himself at the front of the group as usual, spear and shield in hand. The air very quickly became damp as they moved into the darkened cavern, though sporadic torches lined the walls, and these were easily lit by the mages in the group as they passed. Soon the dampness escalated into full-on wetness, as they sank into water first a few inches deep, later increasing to about a foot. There some unsettling noises in the darkness, always beyond the edge of the light, sounds that retreated as they advanced.
Eventually they came into a larger cavernous area, the walls around them opening up into a more expansive space. In the distance they could see light filtering down from above, illuminating a ladder to the surface. That was obviously their way out, but the way to it wasn't exactly clear, and there were no torches in plain view. Vesryn glanced at the mages accompanying him. "I don't suppose we could get some better lighting in here? I'd hate for one of us to turn an ankle." Their footing was treacherous to say the least, with the often uneven cave floor under a foot of water.
There was a silent pause for a moment before Asala realized that Cyrus was probably waiting for her to do it. "Oh! Yes, one moment," she said, calling the spell into her hand. A moment later, a soft blue orb floated above her head, casting light into the dark cavern. Unfortunately, the first thing that it lit up was the furry appendages of a giant spider several yards away, though the distance between the really didn't matter. The spider elicited a terrified scream from Asala, and as she stepped backward an errant stone caught her heel and she was on her backside with a splash in about a foot of water, still trying to scramble back and into the rest of her companions-- splashing the entire way.
Fortunately, her outburst did nothing to dissolve the magelight that still floated above then, although it did garner the attention of the spider and the rest of its nest. Asala hated spiders, and giant ones were even worse.
Unfortunately, the panicked haste of her getaway ended up adding that much more difficulty to the matter at hand. One of Asala's horns connected with something solid—but not as solid as a wall or the floor of the cave, and a muted ah barely preceded another splash right next to her ear. It would seem she'd managed to knock over Estella. What was worse, the contact didn't disappear immediately; Asala could feel something give under the horn's point, and scrape past for a couple seconds before momentum carried Estella away and into the water.
"Oh, for the love of..." Vesryn's words droned out somewhat dulled from beneath his helmet. The closest spider, the one that had brought the scream out of Asala, soon found a spear plunged down straight into its head, ending it rather quickly. The elf planted his boot against it to rip the weapon free. "It's not like they're demons or anything!"
The rest of the nest, more than a half dozen in total, was beginning to skitter along the walls and ceiling of the cavern, baring fangs and very angry at the intruders in their home. The first to jump at the group was smashed out of the air by Vesryn shield, splashing down on its back in the water with legs flailing. The spear drove down into its abdomen, inflicting a bloody wound and leaving it writhing and soon slipping into death. "Damn Venatori can't even occupy a ruin properly." He glanced back behind him. "Is everyone alright back there?"
Stroud took the legs off another spider's left side before switching his grip on his sword and plunging it into the back of the creature's head. A second, he bashed with his shield, simply using his weight to crush it against the wall before stepping away and letting the body fall. "Fine here."
Another few spider corpses, nearer the back, smoked faintly, scorch marks evidence of the fact that magical lightning had struck them. Cyrus looked unperturbed by their presence, but his face did betray a certain sort of anxiousness. He waded quickly to where Asala had fallen, but it was obvious enough that it wasn't her condition he was presently concerned with. “Stellulam?" He bent over as if to help his sister rise, offering a hand.
Estella gripped it, using it to help pull herself up; even in the wan light provided by Asala's spell it was obvious that she was heavily favoring one leg. A dark wetness there, darker than the rest of the water soaked into her clothes, was slowly spreading into the fabric over her right thigh. The rest of the spiders fell easily to the others as she worked to regain her balance, testing the leg and grimacing.
She let go of her brother's hand, though, and offered Asala one of her own. “Sorry about that," she said, smiling a little. “If I'd been thinking fast enough, I'd have moved out of the way. Your head's okay, I hope? I'm not sure what I hit except the..." She made a vague sweeping gesture in the air over her crown and back with her free hand.
"No, no, no," Asala waved her off. She was very animated at the moment, tossing her head around looking for any more spiders, as well as an exceptionally guilty look plastered to her face. She didn't immediately accept the hand, and instead rolled to her knees in the shallow pool and immediately went to Estella's legs. While she may have played it off pretty well, Asala knew what she felt, and she felt extremely ashamed and guilty over it. So instead of wallowing in it, she decided to do something and immediately went to work, the healing lights in her hands before she could even say another word.
She worked quickly and efficiently, and once absorbed in her work, everything else faded for a moment, except for a constant stream of apologies. "I am sorry, I am so sorry, I did not, I mean I... It was not your fault, it was mine, I... I am so sorry," she rattled off as the wound in Estella's leg quickly began to heal. Fortunately, it had not been too deep, and all it took was a few moments of applied magic to close the wound, but though it was gone, the guilt remained. She looked back up to Estella and finally took her outstretched hand, unable to find any words other than more apologies.
“Apology accepted," Estella replied easily, her smile considerably less strained now that the wound was gone. With a tug from both of them, Asala was back on her feet. Reaching down into the water, the Inquisitor cupped some of it in her palm, standing on her toes to comfortably reach the back of Asala's head. “I hope you don't mind, but I doubt you want that to dry there, so..." It became evident what she was doing a moment thereafter, as the slight tug at Asala's temples informed her that something was again in contact with the back of her horn. The horrified look on Asala's face probably told Estella everything she needed to know.
Estella wiped her palm on her trousers a moment later. “Anyway. We should keep going. We don't want to use up our whole distraction down here." There wasn't even a hint of reproach in the way she said it, only the verbal equivalent of a gentle nudge. “And I think the spiders are gone now."
"Oh, they're never gone," Vesryn said, half-jokingly. "There will always be more." Regardless, he was the first to trudge through the water and dead spiders to the ladder that would be their way up and out. It was wooden and didn't appear too strong, but it was capable enough at least to hold Vesryn in his plate. He'd at least elected to lighten his load by not wearing the lion pelt into the Approach.
Working his heavy shield onto his back, the elf began his way up, cautiously poking his armored head up at the top. After he glanced around quickly, he looked back down at the rest of them. "It looks clear. We've a moment of opportunity here." With that, he grabbed the edge of the well and heaved himself over the top, disappearing from sight.
When Asala emerged at the top with the rest of their group, they were greeted with the sight of a fort on high alert. There was shouting in the distance, coming from the walls at the fort's front. Stray balls of fire and lightning occasionally arced to and from them as the mages on either side traded attacks. For the moment they were in a courtyard of some sort, and obviously not an important location to the Venatori, as not a single pair of eyes was on them. Vesryn pulled his shield back into his hand.
“I can make it longer than a moment, if you like." Cyrus looked to be fading at the edges; his outline was blurry and indistinct, and his voice sounded as though it came from over a greater distance than his proximity would warrant. “I'll make them think someone has breached from that way." He raised a hand and pointed, leaving afterimages behind at several points in the motion. “Should keep things plenty chaotic if I don't stay in one place for long, and I'll try and keep the eyes off the rest of you, hm?"
He didn't really seem to be seeking approval, exactly, because he was off in a blink after that, pulling himself through the fade at unnatural speed. As promised, there were soon new flashes of magic, these ones drawing part of the occupying force away in another direction, but still leaving the rest of them quite undetected. A massive bolt of lightning split a cultist in two, by the look of it, smaller lances of electricity arcing to all those surrounding him and putting a knot of them on the floor permanently.
The others were recovering quickly, though; they were not inexperienced rebel mages, but a militarized force of well-educated, well-trained Imperial ones. In short order, it was a proper battle.
With their choice of how to flank their adversaries, Estella elected to lead them first to the outermost edge—the ones furthest from Cyrus, in other words. Moving swiftly and quietly, the Inquisitor drew her knife, leaving the sword where it was. She padded forward on the front of her feet quite heedless of the trail of water she left behind her. The first foe she reached, she stepped close to, wrapping her hand around the mage's mouth from behind and drawing her knife quickly across his throat. Only when he slackened and stilled against her did she carefully set him down, gesturing the rest of them up the stairs.
They fell upon a cluster of Venatori on the wall, trying to return fire on the scouts and others outside. The first few seconds of utter surprise allowed them to capitalize; Estella felled two more before their approach was registered as hostile. After that, it was a little more difficult, as the cultists turned their attention inwards, easing the pressure on their allies outside the walls but giving them much more to contend with.
Vesryn had been holding back some distance behind Estella due to the significant amount of noise he created relative to her when moving, but now that their attack was being turned on he moved rapidly for the front, accelerating with impressive speed for a warrior wearing so much armor. He lowered his stance, the tower shield offering him almost complete coverage from the front save for the slit in his helmet for him to see out of, peeking over the top rim. Several arrows intended for his allies clattered off the face of his shield, and when he saw an opportunity to strike, he took it. The nearest Venatori archer found a spear in his guts, and Vesryn swiftly drove him backwards until the archer tripped and fell over the edge of the wall, smashing into the rocks below. A few arrows from their scouts thudded into him for good measure.
They pushed forward as a group, Vesryn blunting the counter-attack of the Venatori while Stroud and Estella were able to guard his flanks, and clean up the cultist forces they cleaved through, Asala supporting them from the rear. Their advance was halted, however, when a mage near the center of the Venatori forces on the wall hurled a thick stonefist for Vesryn. He had just a moment to brace, the magic colliding with a brutal clang across his shield. He reeled, pushed back a step, but he'd angled his shield well enough for the shot to careen in pieces away from him, flying up into the sky to land harmlessly near where they'd started.
The mage looked to be the leader of the garrison here, judging by his gaudy choice of gilded armor over his white Venatori robes. He wasn't without talent, though; the next spell he wound up looked to be a chain lightning spell that would ricochet between all four of them if they didn't stop it.
Asala quickly closed the distance between herself and her allies, coming to stand in the middle of their formation. However, instead of erecting a simple bubble shield a wide barrier instead sprang to life in front of them all. The barrier had a different look about it, though it still held her signature blue color-- it had a certain shimmering quality to it. The barrier was not a sheer wall, but had a slight inward bow to it, and the reason why was immediately apparently. When the lightning spell struck the shield, it did not fizzle out, but instead ricocheted back where it came from. However, the rush to do so affected her aim, and instead of scoring a direct hit, the spell struck the ground nearby with only a splinter of electricity striking him and the others around him.
However, the convulsion allowed her to refine the next spell. Drawing upon her lessons with Cyrus, she built another barrier, though instead of protecting her allies, this one appeared around the Venatori mage and a few of his allies. Where her previous barrier had been a shimmering blue, this one was a muted green. Soon after, the Venatori mage was back to his senses, pointing his staff at the barrier to summon another spell... When nothing happened. The interior of the barrier had been infused with dispel magic, killing any attempt to draw from the Fade. Without their magic, they were left to futilely beat against the inside of the shield.
“I see you've been having fun trying out your new repertoire." The comment, of course, came from Cyrus, advancing up the other side of the wall. He looked a little singed, as though a fire spell or two had come closer than was comfortable, but he'd sustained no serious injuries that Asala could see, though he was smoking faintly at the shoulders. “Warden, you can step inside that, if you like. I'd hate to break it."
Stroud nodded, passing partway into the sphere and quickly putting an end to the mages at close-quarters. With Vesryn's help, Cyrus turned the gate control to admit the others. Nostariel was the first through, streaked with sweat and dirt but otherwise unharmed. A couple of the scouts sported wounds here or there, but they were all alive. In sum, it was quite the victory, especially for a force of this size.
“Well, let's get a spot cleared out in here for healing." Nostariel eyed a likely corner, then turned back to the rest of them. “It seems like we have a place to stage our attack now, at least. Perhaps you should get a bird back to Skyhold with the news."
As expected, Lia, Rhys, and the rest of the scouts had indeed found a hidden entrance into the caverns underneath the fort. Asala and the rest of the group stood presently at its mouth under the cover of darkness with only the moonlight to guide them. From where they stood, they could still make out its walls above them, though not a soul patrolled their particular side. No doubt their friends from Kirkwall and the scouts had something to do with that on the other side. She was not entirely enthused about their plan, but she understood that it was a necessary act. If they could not take the fort, then the Inquisition's forces would have no place to stage, and without their intervention that meant Corypheus would be able to twist the Wardens to his purpose.
Still, she did not enjoy the thought of delving into a cave at night.
Of course, they wouldn't quite be able to do that yet anyway. As hinted by the presence of strange lights even from a distance, the castle was well-protected by magic, and it did not seem to have escaped the Venatori that this tunnel was a weakness. The entrance, plenty wide for any of their number to get through, was currently blocked by a pale purple barrier of some sort. The surface of it shifted and flickered, as though it contained some kind of darker-colored liquid that was constantly flowing in all directions.
Cyrus stepped up beside Asala. He'd let his scarf fall down around his neck, but his hair was so dark it wouldn't stand any chance of giving away his location. His complexion was more likely to do that, in all honesty. He didn't look like a fellow who customarily saw much sun.
He studied the barrier for a moment and snorted. “That's it? Amateurs." Shaking his head, he crossed his arms. “This barrier is not terribly different from the temporary ones you conjure in battle. It is also made from spirit magic. The same should break it, or you can attempt a dispel. Either method will work; you should choose the one you think will be most efficient." Clearly he wasn't actually that concerned about it, or he'd probably have helped, at least. His posture was also very relaxed—maybe that had something to do with how quiet it was out here. It seemed like the chance of getting caught was pretty minimal.
Asala was aware that if he had wanted to, he could have destroyed the thing in a moment. She turned to her hand and tilted her head. The fact that he gave her options didn't help, as she was now second-guessing which method she should try. She turned back to him and frowned, but shook her head and went closer to the barrier. She inspected a moment before she pressed her hand against it, feeling the thrumming energy beneath her skin. She sighed, she wanted to try to overpower the barrier with one of her own, but something told her that that would not work, and was not what Cyrus was looking for. Instead, she wanted to try something different.
She felt the barrier's energy rippling beneath her finger tips, and summoned magic that felt similar. It was a... comfortable feeling, and the magic formed easily in her hand. However, instead of forcing it into a specific shape like one of her own shields, she allowed it to shape itself. The magic injected itself into the barrier, causing it to ripple like a throwing a stone into water. Asala fed more and more of the spirit magic into the barrier, intensifying the rippling until it could no longer sustain itself, popping as a result. She shielded her eyes from the shattering shield, but once it no longer stood, she turned back to Cyrus as she beamed, feeling legitimately proud of herself.
Surprisingly enough, he smiled back. Not as widely, of course, but enough that she noticed it. “Well done." With the others, he advanced forward to enter the cave she'd opened up for them. “Of course, you should mind the breaking part next time—I'd hate to have to try to teach you how to repair your own mangled eye, hm?" He glanced back over his shoulder and arched an eyebrow.
That managed to turn her smile into a frown. Her brows furrowed and she stuck her tongue out at him as he walked by.
"Lovely dwelling our Venatori friends have taken up," Vesryn commented, sliding his tallhelm down into place on his head as they walked. He positioned himself at the front of the group as usual, spear and shield in hand. The air very quickly became damp as they moved into the darkened cavern, though sporadic torches lined the walls, and these were easily lit by the mages in the group as they passed. Soon the dampness escalated into full-on wetness, as they sank into water first a few inches deep, later increasing to about a foot. There some unsettling noises in the darkness, always beyond the edge of the light, sounds that retreated as they advanced.
Eventually they came into a larger cavernous area, the walls around them opening up into a more expansive space. In the distance they could see light filtering down from above, illuminating a ladder to the surface. That was obviously their way out, but the way to it wasn't exactly clear, and there were no torches in plain view. Vesryn glanced at the mages accompanying him. "I don't suppose we could get some better lighting in here? I'd hate for one of us to turn an ankle." Their footing was treacherous to say the least, with the often uneven cave floor under a foot of water.
There was a silent pause for a moment before Asala realized that Cyrus was probably waiting for her to do it. "Oh! Yes, one moment," she said, calling the spell into her hand. A moment later, a soft blue orb floated above her head, casting light into the dark cavern. Unfortunately, the first thing that it lit up was the furry appendages of a giant spider several yards away, though the distance between the really didn't matter. The spider elicited a terrified scream from Asala, and as she stepped backward an errant stone caught her heel and she was on her backside with a splash in about a foot of water, still trying to scramble back and into the rest of her companions-- splashing the entire way.
Fortunately, her outburst did nothing to dissolve the magelight that still floated above then, although it did garner the attention of the spider and the rest of its nest. Asala hated spiders, and giant ones were even worse.
Unfortunately, the panicked haste of her getaway ended up adding that much more difficulty to the matter at hand. One of Asala's horns connected with something solid—but not as solid as a wall or the floor of the cave, and a muted ah barely preceded another splash right next to her ear. It would seem she'd managed to knock over Estella. What was worse, the contact didn't disappear immediately; Asala could feel something give under the horn's point, and scrape past for a couple seconds before momentum carried Estella away and into the water.
"Oh, for the love of..." Vesryn's words droned out somewhat dulled from beneath his helmet. The closest spider, the one that had brought the scream out of Asala, soon found a spear plunged down straight into its head, ending it rather quickly. The elf planted his boot against it to rip the weapon free. "It's not like they're demons or anything!"
The rest of the nest, more than a half dozen in total, was beginning to skitter along the walls and ceiling of the cavern, baring fangs and very angry at the intruders in their home. The first to jump at the group was smashed out of the air by Vesryn shield, splashing down on its back in the water with legs flailing. The spear drove down into its abdomen, inflicting a bloody wound and leaving it writhing and soon slipping into death. "Damn Venatori can't even occupy a ruin properly." He glanced back behind him. "Is everyone alright back there?"
Stroud took the legs off another spider's left side before switching his grip on his sword and plunging it into the back of the creature's head. A second, he bashed with his shield, simply using his weight to crush it against the wall before stepping away and letting the body fall. "Fine here."
Another few spider corpses, nearer the back, smoked faintly, scorch marks evidence of the fact that magical lightning had struck them. Cyrus looked unperturbed by their presence, but his face did betray a certain sort of anxiousness. He waded quickly to where Asala had fallen, but it was obvious enough that it wasn't her condition he was presently concerned with. “Stellulam?" He bent over as if to help his sister rise, offering a hand.
Estella gripped it, using it to help pull herself up; even in the wan light provided by Asala's spell it was obvious that she was heavily favoring one leg. A dark wetness there, darker than the rest of the water soaked into her clothes, was slowly spreading into the fabric over her right thigh. The rest of the spiders fell easily to the others as she worked to regain her balance, testing the leg and grimacing.
She let go of her brother's hand, though, and offered Asala one of her own. “Sorry about that," she said, smiling a little. “If I'd been thinking fast enough, I'd have moved out of the way. Your head's okay, I hope? I'm not sure what I hit except the..." She made a vague sweeping gesture in the air over her crown and back with her free hand.
"No, no, no," Asala waved her off. She was very animated at the moment, tossing her head around looking for any more spiders, as well as an exceptionally guilty look plastered to her face. She didn't immediately accept the hand, and instead rolled to her knees in the shallow pool and immediately went to Estella's legs. While she may have played it off pretty well, Asala knew what she felt, and she felt extremely ashamed and guilty over it. So instead of wallowing in it, she decided to do something and immediately went to work, the healing lights in her hands before she could even say another word.
She worked quickly and efficiently, and once absorbed in her work, everything else faded for a moment, except for a constant stream of apologies. "I am sorry, I am so sorry, I did not, I mean I... It was not your fault, it was mine, I... I am so sorry," she rattled off as the wound in Estella's leg quickly began to heal. Fortunately, it had not been too deep, and all it took was a few moments of applied magic to close the wound, but though it was gone, the guilt remained. She looked back up to Estella and finally took her outstretched hand, unable to find any words other than more apologies.
“Apology accepted," Estella replied easily, her smile considerably less strained now that the wound was gone. With a tug from both of them, Asala was back on her feet. Reaching down into the water, the Inquisitor cupped some of it in her palm, standing on her toes to comfortably reach the back of Asala's head. “I hope you don't mind, but I doubt you want that to dry there, so..." It became evident what she was doing a moment thereafter, as the slight tug at Asala's temples informed her that something was again in contact with the back of her horn. The horrified look on Asala's face probably told Estella everything she needed to know.
Estella wiped her palm on her trousers a moment later. “Anyway. We should keep going. We don't want to use up our whole distraction down here." There wasn't even a hint of reproach in the way she said it, only the verbal equivalent of a gentle nudge. “And I think the spiders are gone now."
"Oh, they're never gone," Vesryn said, half-jokingly. "There will always be more." Regardless, he was the first to trudge through the water and dead spiders to the ladder that would be their way up and out. It was wooden and didn't appear too strong, but it was capable enough at least to hold Vesryn in his plate. He'd at least elected to lighten his load by not wearing the lion pelt into the Approach.
Working his heavy shield onto his back, the elf began his way up, cautiously poking his armored head up at the top. After he glanced around quickly, he looked back down at the rest of them. "It looks clear. We've a moment of opportunity here." With that, he grabbed the edge of the well and heaved himself over the top, disappearing from sight.
When Asala emerged at the top with the rest of their group, they were greeted with the sight of a fort on high alert. There was shouting in the distance, coming from the walls at the fort's front. Stray balls of fire and lightning occasionally arced to and from them as the mages on either side traded attacks. For the moment they were in a courtyard of some sort, and obviously not an important location to the Venatori, as not a single pair of eyes was on them. Vesryn pulled his shield back into his hand.
“I can make it longer than a moment, if you like." Cyrus looked to be fading at the edges; his outline was blurry and indistinct, and his voice sounded as though it came from over a greater distance than his proximity would warrant. “I'll make them think someone has breached from that way." He raised a hand and pointed, leaving afterimages behind at several points in the motion. “Should keep things plenty chaotic if I don't stay in one place for long, and I'll try and keep the eyes off the rest of you, hm?"
He didn't really seem to be seeking approval, exactly, because he was off in a blink after that, pulling himself through the fade at unnatural speed. As promised, there were soon new flashes of magic, these ones drawing part of the occupying force away in another direction, but still leaving the rest of them quite undetected. A massive bolt of lightning split a cultist in two, by the look of it, smaller lances of electricity arcing to all those surrounding him and putting a knot of them on the floor permanently.
The others were recovering quickly, though; they were not inexperienced rebel mages, but a militarized force of well-educated, well-trained Imperial ones. In short order, it was a proper battle.
With their choice of how to flank their adversaries, Estella elected to lead them first to the outermost edge—the ones furthest from Cyrus, in other words. Moving swiftly and quietly, the Inquisitor drew her knife, leaving the sword where it was. She padded forward on the front of her feet quite heedless of the trail of water she left behind her. The first foe she reached, she stepped close to, wrapping her hand around the mage's mouth from behind and drawing her knife quickly across his throat. Only when he slackened and stilled against her did she carefully set him down, gesturing the rest of them up the stairs.
They fell upon a cluster of Venatori on the wall, trying to return fire on the scouts and others outside. The first few seconds of utter surprise allowed them to capitalize; Estella felled two more before their approach was registered as hostile. After that, it was a little more difficult, as the cultists turned their attention inwards, easing the pressure on their allies outside the walls but giving them much more to contend with.
Vesryn had been holding back some distance behind Estella due to the significant amount of noise he created relative to her when moving, but now that their attack was being turned on he moved rapidly for the front, accelerating with impressive speed for a warrior wearing so much armor. He lowered his stance, the tower shield offering him almost complete coverage from the front save for the slit in his helmet for him to see out of, peeking over the top rim. Several arrows intended for his allies clattered off the face of his shield, and when he saw an opportunity to strike, he took it. The nearest Venatori archer found a spear in his guts, and Vesryn swiftly drove him backwards until the archer tripped and fell over the edge of the wall, smashing into the rocks below. A few arrows from their scouts thudded into him for good measure.
They pushed forward as a group, Vesryn blunting the counter-attack of the Venatori while Stroud and Estella were able to guard his flanks, and clean up the cultist forces they cleaved through, Asala supporting them from the rear. Their advance was halted, however, when a mage near the center of the Venatori forces on the wall hurled a thick stonefist for Vesryn. He had just a moment to brace, the magic colliding with a brutal clang across his shield. He reeled, pushed back a step, but he'd angled his shield well enough for the shot to careen in pieces away from him, flying up into the sky to land harmlessly near where they'd started.
The mage looked to be the leader of the garrison here, judging by his gaudy choice of gilded armor over his white Venatori robes. He wasn't without talent, though; the next spell he wound up looked to be a chain lightning spell that would ricochet between all four of them if they didn't stop it.
Asala quickly closed the distance between herself and her allies, coming to stand in the middle of their formation. However, instead of erecting a simple bubble shield a wide barrier instead sprang to life in front of them all. The barrier had a different look about it, though it still held her signature blue color-- it had a certain shimmering quality to it. The barrier was not a sheer wall, but had a slight inward bow to it, and the reason why was immediately apparently. When the lightning spell struck the shield, it did not fizzle out, but instead ricocheted back where it came from. However, the rush to do so affected her aim, and instead of scoring a direct hit, the spell struck the ground nearby with only a splinter of electricity striking him and the others around him.
However, the convulsion allowed her to refine the next spell. Drawing upon her lessons with Cyrus, she built another barrier, though instead of protecting her allies, this one appeared around the Venatori mage and a few of his allies. Where her previous barrier had been a shimmering blue, this one was a muted green. Soon after, the Venatori mage was back to his senses, pointing his staff at the barrier to summon another spell... When nothing happened. The interior of the barrier had been infused with dispel magic, killing any attempt to draw from the Fade. Without their magic, they were left to futilely beat against the inside of the shield.
“I see you've been having fun trying out your new repertoire." The comment, of course, came from Cyrus, advancing up the other side of the wall. He looked a little singed, as though a fire spell or two had come closer than was comfortable, but he'd sustained no serious injuries that Asala could see, though he was smoking faintly at the shoulders. “Warden, you can step inside that, if you like. I'd hate to break it."
Stroud nodded, passing partway into the sphere and quickly putting an end to the mages at close-quarters. With Vesryn's help, Cyrus turned the gate control to admit the others. Nostariel was the first through, streaked with sweat and dirt but otherwise unharmed. A couple of the scouts sported wounds here or there, but they were all alive. In sum, it was quite the victory, especially for a force of this size.
“Well, let's get a spot cleared out in here for healing." Nostariel eyed a likely corner, then turned back to the rest of them. “It seems like we have a place to stage our attack now, at least. Perhaps you should get a bird back to Skyhold with the news."