The echoing laughter was insidious, in that way demons were. Vesryn would not normally fear such a thing, but as with Nightmare, they found themselves not at full strength for this. Zeth appeared to be out cold, which was probably for the best, all things considered. Stel's arm was painful just to look at, and she'd taken several hard hits apart from that in the fight they'd just finished. He looked back, saw Astraia and Shae getting back to their feet. Astraia still looked in shock, but physically she was fine. Shae looked like she expected Khari to come after her as much as the demon. And as for himself...
Telling Stel he was fine was a rather obvious lie, but any change in him felt irrelevant while she had almost died trying to free them. Saraya was gone from him, as she had been in the Fade, and he knew she wouldn't be able to return for some time. Whatever Zeth had done felt remarkably similar to Nightmare's assault, albeit... more crude, bashing him open with a hammer rather than slicing in with a knife. And Stel had interrupted him partway through the spell, for better or worse. He didn't feel right... but that was something to worry about for another time.
He'd never actually seen a Fade rift open right in front of him before. This one was small, but it held open more steadily than the others. There was no way Stel would be able to close it until they'd dealt with the demon that came through. The desire demon was nowhere to be seen, but it was obvious she was still here. Soft little laughs bouncing off the pillars and the stone walls, no way to locate where she was. It wasn't hard to figure out that the sounds were directly misleading them, but if there was a pattern to it, Vesryn couldn't figure it out.
"Astraia!" he called, making her jump and pulling her attention to him. "I need you over here!" They had to get moving, get ready. Carefully he helped Stel up, using her good arm, and within moments Astraia was there. "Can you do anything for her arm?"
Healing magic sprang to Astraia's fingers, but she hesitated as she looked at Estella's arm, a sort of panicked horror spreading across her face. "It's—I can't here, there's too many breaks, I—here." She shifted the nature of the spell and let it loose, the magic washing over Stel's arm all the way up to the shoulder. "There, that should—Ves!"
A crack of Fade-green lightning had placed a shade directly behind Vesryn, and it immediately slammed into him, pitching him forward onto the ground. He rolled over to get his arms in the way of its claws before it descended on him, thrashing him side to side and trying to tear through. Without any weapon or Saraya, he couldn't find time to even punch at it.
Khari came in from the side, though, lowering her shoulder and charging right into the shade. Her momentum threw it well off-balance, and a quick pair of hits from her heavy sword banished it back to the Fade in a burst of ash and smoke.
Their attention was drawn away from Shae, who was left momentarily alone on the other side of the room. A laugh behind her distracted her and drew her attention the wrong way, before the desire demon reappeared in a flash of smoke, dashing forward and staying low. Her knife sliced across Shae's thigh before she could react. She cried out, swinging her mace in a downward arc, but the demon flowed sideways around it, slicing again and cutting through leathers on her side. The demon backed away from the second retaliatory strike, and by the time the third came she had vanished again, laughing.
"Nothing but elf blood, elves and the elf-blooded girl... it all tastes sweet." She laughed again, the growing volume of it reverberating around the walls. "Share some more? If the pet isn't up to the task, I'll tend to it myself. No one will deny Obsession!"
Stel's right arm still dangled uselessly at her side, but it didn't seem to be causing her pain anymore, at least, and she gripped her sword comfortably enough in her left. Obsession's declaration seemed to strike some kind of nerve, from the way her expression contorted slightly for just a moment into something almost pained. But as she seemed to often do, she reasserted her focus and self-control quickly. The light over their heads brightened, adding to the rift's greenish illumination, but the shrinking shadows did not reveal the demon.
She took a couple steps away from the others, but not many, just enough to give herself room to maneuver. Her eyes scanned the cavern, but Obsession was nowhere to be found. Abruptly, a despair demon emerged from the rift, launching its beam of ice towards her. She ducked forward under it, sprinting to the demon itself and thrusting the sword up into the underside of its head. The demon fell with little difficulty, the beam disappearing, but Obsession seized the opportunity, materializing at Stel's back and punching the dagger right for her spine.
Stel shifted slightly, just in time—the knife missed her spinal column and sank into her left side just below her ribcage instead. With a pained noise, Stel whirled, bringing her saber around in an arc with her, but by the time she should have been cutting into the demon with it, Obsession was already gone.
“Armor's no good," Stel ground out between heavy breaths. “Went right in." Indeed, there didn't seem to be much corresponding damage in her armor itself, but dark blood was already seeping out from underneath it.
“Stel—" Khari cut herself off with a low growl of irritation. “We all need to stay close. We're easy targets if we give her too much room."
A sudden noise from behind Khari caused her to whirl around, only for another to echo from her right. She turned again, sword still braced in front of her, and grumbled something under her breath that sounded most likely indecent. The rift rippled again, this time spitting forth two rage demons. “Oh for—" She made a break towards Shae, the closest target for the demons, swinging her sword into the nearer of the two.
Shae viciously attacked the rage demon in front of her, bashing chunks of molten flesh away from its face when it tried to make a first strike. The hit went through anyway, searing her upper arm. Both combatants seemed content to just ignore the damage they were taking until one could no longer stand, and that proved to be the rage demon, fizzling out into nothingness.
"Khari!" Vesryn called. "My axe." She was much closer to it, and Vesryn was already making his way over to Stel's side, half-dragging Astraia along with him. Khari was right; they were going to get picked off if they separated too much.
Khari glanced around, clearly spotting the weapon where it had been left. Frowning, she made a lunge for it, scooping it up off the ground and sliding it along the stone floor towards him. It actually stopped closer to Stel, but since that was where he was going anyway, it was probably for the best.
"Stay with Shae," he said. He didn't want to give any commands to anyone, but now wasn't the time for polite suggestions. He'd gotten them into this mess, and if he could get them out of it, he would. Whatever it took. "Back to back, don't let her approach unseen. Astraia, stay with us. Between us." He forcefully positioned her between himself and Estella. She was obviously terrified, but more than willing to comply, anxiously aiming her staff at any demons that appeared or noises she heard, but too hesitant to unleash anything in the chaos.
It was actually a tactic he'd learned in his mercenary years rather than from Saraya. Battle-pairs, a way to improve chances of survival after lines were scrambled and the fight turned into chaos. Every fighter found a designated partner, someone they trusted and had worked with, and trusted their back to them, allowing to focus only in front of them even in the most hectic fight. It gave enough room for most styles to maneuver, though it wasn't ideal for speed, more for defense. That was all they could hope for now.
"Protector, protector, desiring to shield them all..." the demon laughed softly in amusement. "If only I served your desires, but yours couldn't match your friend's. A pity to see them dashed." A despair demon flew from the rift again, settling into open space and launching icy magic for Shae and Khari, who were beset by several shades as well.
"Don't go after it," Vesryn urged. He didn't want to see Obsession's knife find anyone else. "Astraia, can you hit it?"
"I can try." She didn't sound certain of it at all, lowering her staff and hurling a spirit bolt at the demon. It shrieked and dodged sideways, the bolt smashing against the ruin's wall. "Damn it!"
Khari snarled, cleaving downwards with her sword into the head of a shade and splitting it open down to the shoulders before it burst into ash. “Coward!" The words sounded like they were expelled as loudly as she could get them from between gritted teeth. “Get out here and fight us for real!" She thrust the blade's nearly-jagged point into the belly of another shade, stopping it cold before it could get at Shae's unarmed side.
This seemed to affect the demon not at all; she continued in an almost singsong tone of voice. "My, my, my, such big desires for such a little elf. The ones you wear for all the world to see... and the ones you hide from everyone around you. I could give you all of it, if you wanted."
“Ar tu na'lin emma mi, da'elgar. I want nothing else from you."
Obsession appeared again, further to the right than she had been. Stel and Astraia both reacted; Astraia's stonefist reached the target first, but she'd already stepped out of the way of it. Stel had obviously tried to anticipate that, and loosed her fire a second later for where the demon went instead of where she'd been, but with a hiss and a more urgent dodge, she managed to stay out of the way, and disappeared again.
Her voice seemed to echo from the ceiling above, now. "Look at you, Lady Inquisitor. Just a mess. What you want is so simple. Other people have it with so little effort. But you... not you. And it grows, and it grows, and it crushes you under its weight. All the things you cannot have, always on your mind."
Stel remained stone-faced; it was actually quite impossible to tell whether the demon had stuck a nerve or not.
Astraia groaned in frustration. The despair demon was still active as well, now launching a continuous stream of magic that was steadily freezing Shae in place. "Pitiful desires, pitiful girl. You should dare to want more!" Gritting her teeth, Astraia strode out several steps away from Vesryn and Estella. Immediately he reached after her, but she had already thrust her staff forward, unleashing a torrent of electrical magic from, channeling it without much in the way of direction. It lit up the inside of the ruin with bright white flashes, arcs of it lashing out and stabbing at everything in front of her, which thankfully included none of her allies. The despair demon did not last long in that, shocked until it disintegrated.
"Astraia, get down!" She turned around, confused and alarmed, as though she hadn't understood Vesryn properly or like she expected him to be in pain or something, not rushing for her. Obsession appeared right behind her, and Vesryn only just shoved Astraia away in time. The knife found him instead, punching into his lower left side. He gritted his teeth and drove his pommel up into her jaw before she could retreat.
She stumbled away in a circle, laughing even as her mask was ripped off by the attack, revealing her twisted features and bloodied face. "A real fight it is, then." Entropic magic lit in her hands, and she slammed it into the ground, the magic rushing outward like Zeth's sleep spell had, washing over them. A sleep spell wouldn't work again on them, but the cloud that passed through them didn't attempt it. Instead Vesryn immediately felt dizzy, sick, only partially in control of his own limbs. He accidentally tripped over Astraia's leg, falling onto his back. She clutched at her head on the ground. Obsession rushed forward to descend on them both, knife poised to strike.
Stel landed solidly on her feet between the both of them and the onrushing demon; she must have vaulted over them from behind, because there was no green light present. The initial spell did not seem to have struck her, but her swing only grazed Obsession, carving a line into her flesh just above her waist. The sizzle was unmistakable as the sword's enchantment went to work, and the demon shrieked with pain or anger or some mix of the two, reaching out for Stel and closing a clawed hand around her neck.
With inhuman strength, she lifted her off her feet, knocking aside a much less-directed attempt to slash again with her elbow and driving the short blade in her free hand hard into Stel's stomach. She twisted; a soft whine escaped Stel's throat, probably the only sound she could make with Obsession's fingers closed around her windpipe. When the demon drew the knife back, its edge was unmistakably wet with blood, poised to lance forward a second time.
A heavy whistle was the only warning before Khari struck, her cleaver slamming with obvious prejudice into the side of Obsession's left leg. The bones in her knee crunched, the impact doing just as much to bludgeon as to cut, though a significant chunk of red-stained white bone came away with the sword, a wedge hewn away by pressure and leverage. “Let her go, you bitch!" Khari shouted over Obsession's scream, the words hard to make out but clear enough in context.
The demon abruptly released Stel, dropping her to the ground. Before Khari could land a second hit, she'd jumped away clumsily and vanished again.
The effects of the demon's spell on Vesryn and Astraia were powerful, but short lived. He'd been able to observe everything that happened, and only vaguely allowed himself to comprehend that Stel might have just taken a fatal wound to save him from his entropy-enhanced clumsiness. But there was still hope. No one was beyond reach yet. He had to believe that. Telanadas, Astraia had said. Nothing was inevitable.
Astraia was getting up as Vesryn was, her eyes passing only momentarily in horror over the blood on the ground, a mix of Stel's red and the demon's black. It was trailing away, hard to see in the imperfect, shifting green and white light, but Astraia followed it. She took steady breaths, trying to slow herself down, and bits of stone that had fallen on the ruin's floor began to rise around her. She whispered something to herself, and the magic grew stronger around her.
With a steady lift of her hands and her staff, she called it up, and a mass of earth rose around the form of Obsession, who quickly became visible again. Petrified in place, she shrieked and struggled against it, but all she could do was move her head, and watch in terror as those she preyed upon turned the feeling back on her.
Khari seized the opportunity to attack, darting forward and swinging in a powerful, double-handed horizontal stroke. With a grunt of effort, she threw her body into the blow, sundering Obsession's head from her neck. It landed with a solid, wet smack on the stone, the rest of her corpse still held in place by the petrify spell, blood gouting from the stump at the top, splashing onto the stone intermittently.
Intercessor's blade fell to scrape the floor, slack in Khari's grip. She was breathing heavily, but her concern seemed to be directed at the rest of them—Stel in particular. “Shit. Shit, Stel, are you okay?" She urged herself into a shuffling jog in that direction.
A soft groan answered; at least she was alive, though it remained to be seen if she'd remain that way. “I don't feel—ngh." She rolled over onto her back, trying to keep pressure on her abdominal wound and sheath her sword at the same time, which was not going well since she had only one functioning arm. “I need help."
Fortunately, Khari got there to provide it, helping her stand and slide the blade back where it belonged. Stel leaned pretty heavily on her, turning them both towards the rift. “Hang on, I need to..." She visibly winced, taking hold of her bad hand with her good one and lifting it up towards the source of the green light. As it happened, the horrific state of her arm didn't prevent the mark from working, and the normal beam connected from one end to the other.
Vesryn was at her other side almost immediately once she was up, pressing his free hand against her stomach, wary of causing her too much pain while she was closing the rift, but knowing they needed to keep pressure on it before she lost too much blood. He was barely even responding emotionally anymore, shutting it out the way Saraya had shut herself out of his mind. None of it would matter if they could all just get out of here alive. The feeling of her blood soaking into his gloves, warm and wet, was distracting him from that, but she had survived these kinds of things before. Astraia was there too, already trying to at least slow the bleeding and keep her upright as long as she could. Once the rift was closed, they'd be able to rest here a moment, and make sure she—
Crack. The rift snapped shut with a blast, but it seemed to be the last straw for the ruin. A large chunk of the ceiling caved in where the rift had been, smashing into the floor and nearly crushing Shae, who'd only just been able to dodge out of the way. The entire ruin started to shake, destabilizing rapidly. Vesryn fought off panic, taking stock of who he had and what they needed to do.
Zeth groaned suddenly, coming back to. Shae made her way over to him, trying to haul him up to his feet under one of his arms, but her leg had taken a bad slash, and it was a struggle. Vesryn made eye contact with Khari. "I need you to help Shae. Astraia and I have Stel." It wasn't an argument, as far as he was concerned. No one was dying here, despite how much Zeth might have brought this on himself. "Hold on, Stel. We just need to get out of here."
Khari didn't look too pleased, but she nodded anyway, hastening to Shae and taking Zeth's other arm in her grip, setting it over her shoulder.
Stel's eyes were glassy; it seemed she was having trouble focusing now, but at least she was still upright, and she dipped her chin in what seemed to be a deliberate manner. “...kay." This close, he could hear a certain wetness in the half-word, a sign that there might well be blood in her lungs. The fingers of her functional hand closed over the edge of one of his pauldrons, clearly her attempt to help the two of them hurry her along.
"Come on, move!" he called to the others, spurring them ahead of him. Zeth seemed to be gaining the sense to start his feet moving a bit, but he was still be mostly carried, lopsided as he was due to the height difference in the two elves assisting him. Stel had much the same thing between Astraia and Vesryn, and Astraia was hardly even paying attention to the falling rock, letting almost aimless healing magic flood out of her hand, in the hopes that she could do something while they were on the run.
They made it up the stairs, just the central chamber of the ruin caved in on itself, crushing the headless Obsession's body along with the rest of it. All that remained was the long tunnel, the entryway. Vesryn was feeling the effects of his own wound as they ran, the one bleeding from his side. But he wasn't in nearly as bad a shape as Stel was, so he regarded it as unimportant. They just had to get there, they just had to move faster...
Shae, Zeth, and Khari made it outside, but a heavy, deep cracking in the ceiling caused Astraia to instinctively stop, throwing her hands up alongside her staff. The ceiling had cracked apart above them, just about dropping massive chunks of rock on their head that would've instantly flattened them, but Astraia held them aloft with her magic. She strained desperately with the effort, unable to move and hold the spell that way simultaneously. "Go!" she called. "I can hold it!"
Vesryn stopped and turned to look at her, well and truly panicking, as there was no way he could think for them to get out of this. It was too far to dive for cover, he couldn't leave Astraia behind, but he couldn't get Stel clear if he stayed. He floundered, unable to come up with anything, tears of frustration springing to his eyes.
"Go!" she cried again.
“Ves..." Stel's voice was weak, but just barely audible. “Don't... let go." She released her hold on his shoulder, twisting in his grip so that her good hand grasped Astraia, arm banding around the young elf's waist. A low crack, a dimmer version of the sound of a rift closing, issued from right next to her—or rather, from the mark itself. Green light burst from the scarlike slash on her right palm, wreathing her and rapidly expanding until both Vesryn and Astraia were awash in it as well. It felt almost like being submerged in warm water, save that he could still breathe without difficulty. Around them, events seemed to be taking place almost in slow motion, the imminent collapse of the cave suddenly much more gradual. Even the noise was almost like being beneath the surface of a lake or something—distant, muffled.
Stel pulled forward against his hold, almost as though she were half-falling, half-lunging towards the mouth of the cave in the distance. With an uncomfortable lurch, both of them were pulled after her. Rather than the single step forward it had seemed to be, though, their feet came down right at the mouth of the cave. His visual field was simply replaced by a new one, as though they hadn't crossed intervening space at all, or had done it instantaneously. The green light flickered dangerously and dissolved. Stel's knees gave out from under her.
The ruin collapsed entirely behind them as soon as they were gone, Astraia's magic no longer holding it up, and it caved in right up to the entryway. Vesryn wasn't even sure what had happened at first, before he realized that Stel must've been able to pull them with her through the Fade, or partway through it, or something. The how wasn't even concerning to him, just the fact that it had been done. An overwhelming relief flooded him, the brief thought of losing Astraia to this banished.
But Stel had collapsed, and Astraia and Vesryn both went down with her of their own accord. There was a patch of soft grass next to where she'd fallen; as one they gently shifted Stel onto it, rolling her carefully onto her back. Astraia didn't seem to know how she was alive, either, but she wasn't questioning it, instead just getting to work on calling more magic to her hands, and repairing Stel's wounds. She started with the most dangerous one to her stomach, focusing intently. "I'm sorry, I'm not as good at this as the others," she said quietly. "This will probably hurt some."
Vesryn preferred not to look, kneeling by her head and pulling his gloves off. His right hand was coated in her blood. He used the left instead, pushing some of the loose hair away from her face, and then tracing his thumb across her cheek. "Our turn to save you, got it? Just stay with us, Skygirl's got this."
On the other side of the ruin, Shae had carefully set Zeth down in a seated position atop a rock that had tumbled down the mountainside. The mountain itself was calm again, the collapse having run its course.
Khari spared them a worried look, open concern etched across her face, but it was swiftly chased by a poorly-contained fury. She had not relinquished her hold on her sword, though she made no attempt to use it, merely keeping the end pointed down and herself positioned so she had a clear view of Zeth. She seemed like she'd rather be with Stel at the moment, but perhaps she thought better of crowding either an inexperienced healer or a patient in need of help.
“You're gonna be fine, Stel. We can even take tomorrow morning's workout off, if you want."
Stel's mouth quirked just slightly, before she pulled a thin breath between her teeth as Astraia started to work. “S'okay," she mumbled. “Hurts anyway. What's a—nnh—little more?" She kept her breath mostly steady, but it wasn't hard to tell how weak it was, and it sounded like each one bubbled a little. There was definitely blood or something there.
“I'll be all right. Worst is—" She flinched a bit, a reaction to something the magic was doing, clearly. “Worst is over." It sounded like she was trying to reassure the both of them, but it was Vesryn's eyes she held with her own. “Thanks... for trusting me. I didn't—didn't know if that would work."
"Of course," he answered, smiling, wiping a tear away from his own cheek. He could feel it flooding out of him now that the fight was over. All the concern he'd let build up. "And it did work. Brilliantly, in my opinion."
A soft groan sounded out from behind him, one sounding more like a man recovering from a headache or a hangover than pants of severe injury. "What... what have I done?" Zeth's voice came out thick, almost choked, heavy with grief. Vesryn didn't care if he felt remorse. The only thing the sound of his voice evoked from him was rage. He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, steeling himself for a moment, and then tried to smile down at Stel.
"I'll be right back. Need to have a word." He wasn't sure what words they would be, but the physical kind would probably come first. He pulled his hand from Stel, leaving Astraia to her work, and dropped his axe as he turned. He didn't trust himself with it. Zeth still sat on that rock, looking honestly little worse for wear. He looked small, Vesryn supposed, tired and diminished. His eyes no longer carried that dull red glow. "Move, Shae." The First's protector glanced uneasily at him, her obvious instinct being to stand in his way, but after a moment's hesitation... she backed off, watching Zeth with a neutral expression.
Vesryn wasn't able to do that, his features contorting with rage. He reached out, seizing Zeth by his robes and hauling him up. Setting him up for the heavy swing of his right fist that followed. The hit decked Zeth across the jaw, sending him stumbling back onto his face in the grass with a whimper. "I should kill you for this, era'harel. Demons! You would risk the lives of everyone I care about for your obsession." He spat on him. "Get up. I said get up!"
He stooped down and snatched him up again, punching him twice this time before he allowed him to fall in a heap, his face bloodied. He coughed and moaned on the ground. "I tried, Ves..." he gasped in a ragged breath. "I tried to stop her. She was in my head for so long... it was killing me, Ves."
"Too much of a coward to speak the truth to us." He pulled back and kicked Zeth in the gut. "Seth'lin! Maybe you should have died." Zeth cried out in pain. Behind them, Astraia wiped a tear from her face before it could fall on Stel, but she refused to shift her focus.
"I'm sorry, Ves," Zeth sobbed, curling up and shaking. "I'm so sorry I couldn't fight her. I didn't mean for this, please..."
“Ves." The voice came from Stel, raspy and uncomfortable, but stronger than it had been earlier. “The demon is dead. The person left was—" She ran out of air and coughed, pausing a long moment before she could pull in another to continue. “He was weak, not malicious. He's still—still Astraia's brother. Still a First the Dalish need." She tried to shift, maybe to address him more directly, but slumped back to the grass with a soft noise. “And he's still someone you cared about. Do you—do you really want to live with it, if you strike him down for his weakness?"
Vesryn took breath after breath, staring down at the form of Zeth beneath him. Steadily, each breath came slower. He'd known as soon as she said his name that he didn't have it in him to kill Zeth. Whatever they were now, they were friends once. They would never be again, not after this. This was more than he felt could ever be forgiven, ever be moved past. But he could at least choose not to let this consume him, but rather to let go of it instead. Something Zeth had never been able to do.
Slowly, he crouched down, grabbing Zeth by the collar and forcing him to look up at him. "Listen very carefully," he said, his voice quiet out, but still able to carry through the stillness to the others. "You are going to crawl your way back to the Tirashan and beg the forgiveness of your clan. You will learn from this mistake, and serve the People in the ways that are still left to you. I never want to see you again, Zeth. Do you understand?"
"Ves, I—"
"Do you understand me?" he repeated. Relenting, Zeth nodded weakly, and Vesryn shoved him away, standing and turning to head back to Stel. He had no desire to be anywhere near the man anymore. "Shae, see to it that Zeth makes it back to his clan. Understand?"
"I understand." Shae's voice was quiet, subdued, devoid of any of the usual tone of agitation. "For what it's worth... I didn't know, Vesryn. About the blood magic, the demon, I..."
"It doesn't matter. Just go home."
Shae nodded uneasily, then looked to Astraia. "As soon as you're done, Astraia, we'll find another place to camp for the night."
Astraia did not look up from her work. She had shifted from the stomach wound now to the other stab in Stel's side. There was an uncomfortable amount of blood staining the ground around her, but it seemed as though not much more was joining it. Astraia was working as quickly as she could. "I'm staying, Shae." Shae hesitated, opening her mouth to protest, but she closed it again, lowering her head. Vesryn thought there might have been some shame in her expression. "I want to choose my own future, and for now it won't be with the Dalish. I want to join the Inquisition. I can help them." It seemed quite obvious that she could. The Inquisitor would probably be dead by now if not for her.
"Then..." Shae swallowed uncomfortably. "Dareth shiral, lethallan. Please, be careful."
"We'll look after her," Vesryn promised, managing to smile a little. "When she's not looking after us, that is."
Telling Stel he was fine was a rather obvious lie, but any change in him felt irrelevant while she had almost died trying to free them. Saraya was gone from him, as she had been in the Fade, and he knew she wouldn't be able to return for some time. Whatever Zeth had done felt remarkably similar to Nightmare's assault, albeit... more crude, bashing him open with a hammer rather than slicing in with a knife. And Stel had interrupted him partway through the spell, for better or worse. He didn't feel right... but that was something to worry about for another time.
He'd never actually seen a Fade rift open right in front of him before. This one was small, but it held open more steadily than the others. There was no way Stel would be able to close it until they'd dealt with the demon that came through. The desire demon was nowhere to be seen, but it was obvious she was still here. Soft little laughs bouncing off the pillars and the stone walls, no way to locate where she was. It wasn't hard to figure out that the sounds were directly misleading them, but if there was a pattern to it, Vesryn couldn't figure it out.
"Astraia!" he called, making her jump and pulling her attention to him. "I need you over here!" They had to get moving, get ready. Carefully he helped Stel up, using her good arm, and within moments Astraia was there. "Can you do anything for her arm?"
Healing magic sprang to Astraia's fingers, but she hesitated as she looked at Estella's arm, a sort of panicked horror spreading across her face. "It's—I can't here, there's too many breaks, I—here." She shifted the nature of the spell and let it loose, the magic washing over Stel's arm all the way up to the shoulder. "There, that should—Ves!"
A crack of Fade-green lightning had placed a shade directly behind Vesryn, and it immediately slammed into him, pitching him forward onto the ground. He rolled over to get his arms in the way of its claws before it descended on him, thrashing him side to side and trying to tear through. Without any weapon or Saraya, he couldn't find time to even punch at it.
Khari came in from the side, though, lowering her shoulder and charging right into the shade. Her momentum threw it well off-balance, and a quick pair of hits from her heavy sword banished it back to the Fade in a burst of ash and smoke.
Their attention was drawn away from Shae, who was left momentarily alone on the other side of the room. A laugh behind her distracted her and drew her attention the wrong way, before the desire demon reappeared in a flash of smoke, dashing forward and staying low. Her knife sliced across Shae's thigh before she could react. She cried out, swinging her mace in a downward arc, but the demon flowed sideways around it, slicing again and cutting through leathers on her side. The demon backed away from the second retaliatory strike, and by the time the third came she had vanished again, laughing.
"Nothing but elf blood, elves and the elf-blooded girl... it all tastes sweet." She laughed again, the growing volume of it reverberating around the walls. "Share some more? If the pet isn't up to the task, I'll tend to it myself. No one will deny Obsession!"
Stel's right arm still dangled uselessly at her side, but it didn't seem to be causing her pain anymore, at least, and she gripped her sword comfortably enough in her left. Obsession's declaration seemed to strike some kind of nerve, from the way her expression contorted slightly for just a moment into something almost pained. But as she seemed to often do, she reasserted her focus and self-control quickly. The light over their heads brightened, adding to the rift's greenish illumination, but the shrinking shadows did not reveal the demon.
She took a couple steps away from the others, but not many, just enough to give herself room to maneuver. Her eyes scanned the cavern, but Obsession was nowhere to be found. Abruptly, a despair demon emerged from the rift, launching its beam of ice towards her. She ducked forward under it, sprinting to the demon itself and thrusting the sword up into the underside of its head. The demon fell with little difficulty, the beam disappearing, but Obsession seized the opportunity, materializing at Stel's back and punching the dagger right for her spine.
Stel shifted slightly, just in time—the knife missed her spinal column and sank into her left side just below her ribcage instead. With a pained noise, Stel whirled, bringing her saber around in an arc with her, but by the time she should have been cutting into the demon with it, Obsession was already gone.
“Armor's no good," Stel ground out between heavy breaths. “Went right in." Indeed, there didn't seem to be much corresponding damage in her armor itself, but dark blood was already seeping out from underneath it.
“Stel—" Khari cut herself off with a low growl of irritation. “We all need to stay close. We're easy targets if we give her too much room."
A sudden noise from behind Khari caused her to whirl around, only for another to echo from her right. She turned again, sword still braced in front of her, and grumbled something under her breath that sounded most likely indecent. The rift rippled again, this time spitting forth two rage demons. “Oh for—" She made a break towards Shae, the closest target for the demons, swinging her sword into the nearer of the two.
Shae viciously attacked the rage demon in front of her, bashing chunks of molten flesh away from its face when it tried to make a first strike. The hit went through anyway, searing her upper arm. Both combatants seemed content to just ignore the damage they were taking until one could no longer stand, and that proved to be the rage demon, fizzling out into nothingness.
"Khari!" Vesryn called. "My axe." She was much closer to it, and Vesryn was already making his way over to Stel's side, half-dragging Astraia along with him. Khari was right; they were going to get picked off if they separated too much.
Khari glanced around, clearly spotting the weapon where it had been left. Frowning, she made a lunge for it, scooping it up off the ground and sliding it along the stone floor towards him. It actually stopped closer to Stel, but since that was where he was going anyway, it was probably for the best.
"Stay with Shae," he said. He didn't want to give any commands to anyone, but now wasn't the time for polite suggestions. He'd gotten them into this mess, and if he could get them out of it, he would. Whatever it took. "Back to back, don't let her approach unseen. Astraia, stay with us. Between us." He forcefully positioned her between himself and Estella. She was obviously terrified, but more than willing to comply, anxiously aiming her staff at any demons that appeared or noises she heard, but too hesitant to unleash anything in the chaos.
It was actually a tactic he'd learned in his mercenary years rather than from Saraya. Battle-pairs, a way to improve chances of survival after lines were scrambled and the fight turned into chaos. Every fighter found a designated partner, someone they trusted and had worked with, and trusted their back to them, allowing to focus only in front of them even in the most hectic fight. It gave enough room for most styles to maneuver, though it wasn't ideal for speed, more for defense. That was all they could hope for now.
"Protector, protector, desiring to shield them all..." the demon laughed softly in amusement. "If only I served your desires, but yours couldn't match your friend's. A pity to see them dashed." A despair demon flew from the rift again, settling into open space and launching icy magic for Shae and Khari, who were beset by several shades as well.
"Don't go after it," Vesryn urged. He didn't want to see Obsession's knife find anyone else. "Astraia, can you hit it?"
"I can try." She didn't sound certain of it at all, lowering her staff and hurling a spirit bolt at the demon. It shrieked and dodged sideways, the bolt smashing against the ruin's wall. "Damn it!"
Khari snarled, cleaving downwards with her sword into the head of a shade and splitting it open down to the shoulders before it burst into ash. “Coward!" The words sounded like they were expelled as loudly as she could get them from between gritted teeth. “Get out here and fight us for real!" She thrust the blade's nearly-jagged point into the belly of another shade, stopping it cold before it could get at Shae's unarmed side.
This seemed to affect the demon not at all; she continued in an almost singsong tone of voice. "My, my, my, such big desires for such a little elf. The ones you wear for all the world to see... and the ones you hide from everyone around you. I could give you all of it, if you wanted."
“Ar tu na'lin emma mi, da'elgar. I want nothing else from you."
Obsession appeared again, further to the right than she had been. Stel and Astraia both reacted; Astraia's stonefist reached the target first, but she'd already stepped out of the way of it. Stel had obviously tried to anticipate that, and loosed her fire a second later for where the demon went instead of where she'd been, but with a hiss and a more urgent dodge, she managed to stay out of the way, and disappeared again.
Her voice seemed to echo from the ceiling above, now. "Look at you, Lady Inquisitor. Just a mess. What you want is so simple. Other people have it with so little effort. But you... not you. And it grows, and it grows, and it crushes you under its weight. All the things you cannot have, always on your mind."
Stel remained stone-faced; it was actually quite impossible to tell whether the demon had stuck a nerve or not.
Astraia groaned in frustration. The despair demon was still active as well, now launching a continuous stream of magic that was steadily freezing Shae in place. "Pitiful desires, pitiful girl. You should dare to want more!" Gritting her teeth, Astraia strode out several steps away from Vesryn and Estella. Immediately he reached after her, but she had already thrust her staff forward, unleashing a torrent of electrical magic from, channeling it without much in the way of direction. It lit up the inside of the ruin with bright white flashes, arcs of it lashing out and stabbing at everything in front of her, which thankfully included none of her allies. The despair demon did not last long in that, shocked until it disintegrated.
"Astraia, get down!" She turned around, confused and alarmed, as though she hadn't understood Vesryn properly or like she expected him to be in pain or something, not rushing for her. Obsession appeared right behind her, and Vesryn only just shoved Astraia away in time. The knife found him instead, punching into his lower left side. He gritted his teeth and drove his pommel up into her jaw before she could retreat.
She stumbled away in a circle, laughing even as her mask was ripped off by the attack, revealing her twisted features and bloodied face. "A real fight it is, then." Entropic magic lit in her hands, and she slammed it into the ground, the magic rushing outward like Zeth's sleep spell had, washing over them. A sleep spell wouldn't work again on them, but the cloud that passed through them didn't attempt it. Instead Vesryn immediately felt dizzy, sick, only partially in control of his own limbs. He accidentally tripped over Astraia's leg, falling onto his back. She clutched at her head on the ground. Obsession rushed forward to descend on them both, knife poised to strike.
Stel landed solidly on her feet between the both of them and the onrushing demon; she must have vaulted over them from behind, because there was no green light present. The initial spell did not seem to have struck her, but her swing only grazed Obsession, carving a line into her flesh just above her waist. The sizzle was unmistakable as the sword's enchantment went to work, and the demon shrieked with pain or anger or some mix of the two, reaching out for Stel and closing a clawed hand around her neck.
With inhuman strength, she lifted her off her feet, knocking aside a much less-directed attempt to slash again with her elbow and driving the short blade in her free hand hard into Stel's stomach. She twisted; a soft whine escaped Stel's throat, probably the only sound she could make with Obsession's fingers closed around her windpipe. When the demon drew the knife back, its edge was unmistakably wet with blood, poised to lance forward a second time.
A heavy whistle was the only warning before Khari struck, her cleaver slamming with obvious prejudice into the side of Obsession's left leg. The bones in her knee crunched, the impact doing just as much to bludgeon as to cut, though a significant chunk of red-stained white bone came away with the sword, a wedge hewn away by pressure and leverage. “Let her go, you bitch!" Khari shouted over Obsession's scream, the words hard to make out but clear enough in context.
The demon abruptly released Stel, dropping her to the ground. Before Khari could land a second hit, she'd jumped away clumsily and vanished again.
The effects of the demon's spell on Vesryn and Astraia were powerful, but short lived. He'd been able to observe everything that happened, and only vaguely allowed himself to comprehend that Stel might have just taken a fatal wound to save him from his entropy-enhanced clumsiness. But there was still hope. No one was beyond reach yet. He had to believe that. Telanadas, Astraia had said. Nothing was inevitable.
Astraia was getting up as Vesryn was, her eyes passing only momentarily in horror over the blood on the ground, a mix of Stel's red and the demon's black. It was trailing away, hard to see in the imperfect, shifting green and white light, but Astraia followed it. She took steady breaths, trying to slow herself down, and bits of stone that had fallen on the ruin's floor began to rise around her. She whispered something to herself, and the magic grew stronger around her.
With a steady lift of her hands and her staff, she called it up, and a mass of earth rose around the form of Obsession, who quickly became visible again. Petrified in place, she shrieked and struggled against it, but all she could do was move her head, and watch in terror as those she preyed upon turned the feeling back on her.
Khari seized the opportunity to attack, darting forward and swinging in a powerful, double-handed horizontal stroke. With a grunt of effort, she threw her body into the blow, sundering Obsession's head from her neck. It landed with a solid, wet smack on the stone, the rest of her corpse still held in place by the petrify spell, blood gouting from the stump at the top, splashing onto the stone intermittently.
Intercessor's blade fell to scrape the floor, slack in Khari's grip. She was breathing heavily, but her concern seemed to be directed at the rest of them—Stel in particular. “Shit. Shit, Stel, are you okay?" She urged herself into a shuffling jog in that direction.
A soft groan answered; at least she was alive, though it remained to be seen if she'd remain that way. “I don't feel—ngh." She rolled over onto her back, trying to keep pressure on her abdominal wound and sheath her sword at the same time, which was not going well since she had only one functioning arm. “I need help."
Fortunately, Khari got there to provide it, helping her stand and slide the blade back where it belonged. Stel leaned pretty heavily on her, turning them both towards the rift. “Hang on, I need to..." She visibly winced, taking hold of her bad hand with her good one and lifting it up towards the source of the green light. As it happened, the horrific state of her arm didn't prevent the mark from working, and the normal beam connected from one end to the other.
Vesryn was at her other side almost immediately once she was up, pressing his free hand against her stomach, wary of causing her too much pain while she was closing the rift, but knowing they needed to keep pressure on it before she lost too much blood. He was barely even responding emotionally anymore, shutting it out the way Saraya had shut herself out of his mind. None of it would matter if they could all just get out of here alive. The feeling of her blood soaking into his gloves, warm and wet, was distracting him from that, but she had survived these kinds of things before. Astraia was there too, already trying to at least slow the bleeding and keep her upright as long as she could. Once the rift was closed, they'd be able to rest here a moment, and make sure she—
Crack. The rift snapped shut with a blast, but it seemed to be the last straw for the ruin. A large chunk of the ceiling caved in where the rift had been, smashing into the floor and nearly crushing Shae, who'd only just been able to dodge out of the way. The entire ruin started to shake, destabilizing rapidly. Vesryn fought off panic, taking stock of who he had and what they needed to do.
Zeth groaned suddenly, coming back to. Shae made her way over to him, trying to haul him up to his feet under one of his arms, but her leg had taken a bad slash, and it was a struggle. Vesryn made eye contact with Khari. "I need you to help Shae. Astraia and I have Stel." It wasn't an argument, as far as he was concerned. No one was dying here, despite how much Zeth might have brought this on himself. "Hold on, Stel. We just need to get out of here."
Khari didn't look too pleased, but she nodded anyway, hastening to Shae and taking Zeth's other arm in her grip, setting it over her shoulder.
Stel's eyes were glassy; it seemed she was having trouble focusing now, but at least she was still upright, and she dipped her chin in what seemed to be a deliberate manner. “...kay." This close, he could hear a certain wetness in the half-word, a sign that there might well be blood in her lungs. The fingers of her functional hand closed over the edge of one of his pauldrons, clearly her attempt to help the two of them hurry her along.
"Come on, move!" he called to the others, spurring them ahead of him. Zeth seemed to be gaining the sense to start his feet moving a bit, but he was still be mostly carried, lopsided as he was due to the height difference in the two elves assisting him. Stel had much the same thing between Astraia and Vesryn, and Astraia was hardly even paying attention to the falling rock, letting almost aimless healing magic flood out of her hand, in the hopes that she could do something while they were on the run.
They made it up the stairs, just the central chamber of the ruin caved in on itself, crushing the headless Obsession's body along with the rest of it. All that remained was the long tunnel, the entryway. Vesryn was feeling the effects of his own wound as they ran, the one bleeding from his side. But he wasn't in nearly as bad a shape as Stel was, so he regarded it as unimportant. They just had to get there, they just had to move faster...
Shae, Zeth, and Khari made it outside, but a heavy, deep cracking in the ceiling caused Astraia to instinctively stop, throwing her hands up alongside her staff. The ceiling had cracked apart above them, just about dropping massive chunks of rock on their head that would've instantly flattened them, but Astraia held them aloft with her magic. She strained desperately with the effort, unable to move and hold the spell that way simultaneously. "Go!" she called. "I can hold it!"
Vesryn stopped and turned to look at her, well and truly panicking, as there was no way he could think for them to get out of this. It was too far to dive for cover, he couldn't leave Astraia behind, but he couldn't get Stel clear if he stayed. He floundered, unable to come up with anything, tears of frustration springing to his eyes.
"Go!" she cried again.
“Ves..." Stel's voice was weak, but just barely audible. “Don't... let go." She released her hold on his shoulder, twisting in his grip so that her good hand grasped Astraia, arm banding around the young elf's waist. A low crack, a dimmer version of the sound of a rift closing, issued from right next to her—or rather, from the mark itself. Green light burst from the scarlike slash on her right palm, wreathing her and rapidly expanding until both Vesryn and Astraia were awash in it as well. It felt almost like being submerged in warm water, save that he could still breathe without difficulty. Around them, events seemed to be taking place almost in slow motion, the imminent collapse of the cave suddenly much more gradual. Even the noise was almost like being beneath the surface of a lake or something—distant, muffled.
Stel pulled forward against his hold, almost as though she were half-falling, half-lunging towards the mouth of the cave in the distance. With an uncomfortable lurch, both of them were pulled after her. Rather than the single step forward it had seemed to be, though, their feet came down right at the mouth of the cave. His visual field was simply replaced by a new one, as though they hadn't crossed intervening space at all, or had done it instantaneously. The green light flickered dangerously and dissolved. Stel's knees gave out from under her.
The ruin collapsed entirely behind them as soon as they were gone, Astraia's magic no longer holding it up, and it caved in right up to the entryway. Vesryn wasn't even sure what had happened at first, before he realized that Stel must've been able to pull them with her through the Fade, or partway through it, or something. The how wasn't even concerning to him, just the fact that it had been done. An overwhelming relief flooded him, the brief thought of losing Astraia to this banished.
But Stel had collapsed, and Astraia and Vesryn both went down with her of their own accord. There was a patch of soft grass next to where she'd fallen; as one they gently shifted Stel onto it, rolling her carefully onto her back. Astraia didn't seem to know how she was alive, either, but she wasn't questioning it, instead just getting to work on calling more magic to her hands, and repairing Stel's wounds. She started with the most dangerous one to her stomach, focusing intently. "I'm sorry, I'm not as good at this as the others," she said quietly. "This will probably hurt some."
Vesryn preferred not to look, kneeling by her head and pulling his gloves off. His right hand was coated in her blood. He used the left instead, pushing some of the loose hair away from her face, and then tracing his thumb across her cheek. "Our turn to save you, got it? Just stay with us, Skygirl's got this."
On the other side of the ruin, Shae had carefully set Zeth down in a seated position atop a rock that had tumbled down the mountainside. The mountain itself was calm again, the collapse having run its course.
Khari spared them a worried look, open concern etched across her face, but it was swiftly chased by a poorly-contained fury. She had not relinquished her hold on her sword, though she made no attempt to use it, merely keeping the end pointed down and herself positioned so she had a clear view of Zeth. She seemed like she'd rather be with Stel at the moment, but perhaps she thought better of crowding either an inexperienced healer or a patient in need of help.
“You're gonna be fine, Stel. We can even take tomorrow morning's workout off, if you want."
Stel's mouth quirked just slightly, before she pulled a thin breath between her teeth as Astraia started to work. “S'okay," she mumbled. “Hurts anyway. What's a—nnh—little more?" She kept her breath mostly steady, but it wasn't hard to tell how weak it was, and it sounded like each one bubbled a little. There was definitely blood or something there.
“I'll be all right. Worst is—" She flinched a bit, a reaction to something the magic was doing, clearly. “Worst is over." It sounded like she was trying to reassure the both of them, but it was Vesryn's eyes she held with her own. “Thanks... for trusting me. I didn't—didn't know if that would work."
"Of course," he answered, smiling, wiping a tear away from his own cheek. He could feel it flooding out of him now that the fight was over. All the concern he'd let build up. "And it did work. Brilliantly, in my opinion."
A soft groan sounded out from behind him, one sounding more like a man recovering from a headache or a hangover than pants of severe injury. "What... what have I done?" Zeth's voice came out thick, almost choked, heavy with grief. Vesryn didn't care if he felt remorse. The only thing the sound of his voice evoked from him was rage. He wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, steeling himself for a moment, and then tried to smile down at Stel.
"I'll be right back. Need to have a word." He wasn't sure what words they would be, but the physical kind would probably come first. He pulled his hand from Stel, leaving Astraia to her work, and dropped his axe as he turned. He didn't trust himself with it. Zeth still sat on that rock, looking honestly little worse for wear. He looked small, Vesryn supposed, tired and diminished. His eyes no longer carried that dull red glow. "Move, Shae." The First's protector glanced uneasily at him, her obvious instinct being to stand in his way, but after a moment's hesitation... she backed off, watching Zeth with a neutral expression.
Vesryn wasn't able to do that, his features contorting with rage. He reached out, seizing Zeth by his robes and hauling him up. Setting him up for the heavy swing of his right fist that followed. The hit decked Zeth across the jaw, sending him stumbling back onto his face in the grass with a whimper. "I should kill you for this, era'harel. Demons! You would risk the lives of everyone I care about for your obsession." He spat on him. "Get up. I said get up!"
He stooped down and snatched him up again, punching him twice this time before he allowed him to fall in a heap, his face bloodied. He coughed and moaned on the ground. "I tried, Ves..." he gasped in a ragged breath. "I tried to stop her. She was in my head for so long... it was killing me, Ves."
"Too much of a coward to speak the truth to us." He pulled back and kicked Zeth in the gut. "Seth'lin! Maybe you should have died." Zeth cried out in pain. Behind them, Astraia wiped a tear from her face before it could fall on Stel, but she refused to shift her focus.
"I'm sorry, Ves," Zeth sobbed, curling up and shaking. "I'm so sorry I couldn't fight her. I didn't mean for this, please..."
“Ves." The voice came from Stel, raspy and uncomfortable, but stronger than it had been earlier. “The demon is dead. The person left was—" She ran out of air and coughed, pausing a long moment before she could pull in another to continue. “He was weak, not malicious. He's still—still Astraia's brother. Still a First the Dalish need." She tried to shift, maybe to address him more directly, but slumped back to the grass with a soft noise. “And he's still someone you cared about. Do you—do you really want to live with it, if you strike him down for his weakness?"
Vesryn took breath after breath, staring down at the form of Zeth beneath him. Steadily, each breath came slower. He'd known as soon as she said his name that he didn't have it in him to kill Zeth. Whatever they were now, they were friends once. They would never be again, not after this. This was more than he felt could ever be forgiven, ever be moved past. But he could at least choose not to let this consume him, but rather to let go of it instead. Something Zeth had never been able to do.
Slowly, he crouched down, grabbing Zeth by the collar and forcing him to look up at him. "Listen very carefully," he said, his voice quiet out, but still able to carry through the stillness to the others. "You are going to crawl your way back to the Tirashan and beg the forgiveness of your clan. You will learn from this mistake, and serve the People in the ways that are still left to you. I never want to see you again, Zeth. Do you understand?"
"Ves, I—"
"Do you understand me?" he repeated. Relenting, Zeth nodded weakly, and Vesryn shoved him away, standing and turning to head back to Stel. He had no desire to be anywhere near the man anymore. "Shae, see to it that Zeth makes it back to his clan. Understand?"
"I understand." Shae's voice was quiet, subdued, devoid of any of the usual tone of agitation. "For what it's worth... I didn't know, Vesryn. About the blood magic, the demon, I..."
"It doesn't matter. Just go home."
Shae nodded uneasily, then looked to Astraia. "As soon as you're done, Astraia, we'll find another place to camp for the night."
Astraia did not look up from her work. She had shifted from the stomach wound now to the other stab in Stel's side. There was an uncomfortable amount of blood staining the ground around her, but it seemed as though not much more was joining it. Astraia was working as quickly as she could. "I'm staying, Shae." Shae hesitated, opening her mouth to protest, but she closed it again, lowering her head. Vesryn thought there might have been some shame in her expression. "I want to choose my own future, and for now it won't be with the Dalish. I want to join the Inquisition. I can help them." It seemed quite obvious that she could. The Inquisitor would probably be dead by now if not for her.
"Then..." Shae swallowed uncomfortably. "Dareth shiral, lethallan. Please, be careful."
"We'll look after her," Vesryn promised, managing to smile a little. "When she's not looking after us, that is."