Three days after they took the quarry, the siege against Suledin Fortress was well underway. Frankly Khari felt it was kind of dragging, but sieges had a habit of doing that. In a way, it was better than the alternative, at least for the regulars. They'd taken their captains injury pretty hard in morale terms—not surprising. Cor was a likeable guy, and he more than any of the rest of them was the one who'd been among the individual troops, getting to know them and training them and all that. She figured it had to have hit his fellow Lions the hardest, but they were mercenaries, more used to the idea of losing friends and comrades.
But he seemed to be stable, even if healing was inexplicably slow. Asala was good at what she did, though, and pretty much everyone knew that, so the mood was picking up again. Meanwhile, they still wailed away at the fortress with Lucien's trebuchets, and waited for... well, she wasn't sure, exactly. An opportunity, maybe.
At the moment, most of the command team was gathered in one of the large canvas tents they'd set up upon arrival. Khari was actually kind of surprised she'd been invited to participate, strategy training with Leon or not. She still had a sense of her own position in the Inquisition, though, and stood a few feet back from the map table that hosted most of those who were actually in charge. She'd contribute if there was an opportunity to say something useful, but she wasn't going to insist otherwise.
Lia was in the process of walking the others through the situation. "It's a huge fortress, too big for the reds to properly man. They've actually given up a few sections of the wall, here," she pointed to a spot on the map laid out on the table in front of her, "and here. These aren't feasible to attack, the terrain is awful, but here on the east side there's a drain, a hole allowing a stream to pass under. The metal's rusted and weak. Could provide a way in to an undefended area of the fortress, but sending any more than a few would be a huge risk. No easy way out once they're in."
She looked tired. She'd been at work almost nonstop since the siege began, taking only a few hours of rest. No doubt she was taking Cor's injury harder than most. They were both from Kirkwall, after all, and friends since well before the Inquisition was founded.
Séverine seemed to sense it too. Her tone was softer than usual. "And what would a small group hope to do, once inside?"
Lia shrugged. "Well... the north gate has the lightest defense of the ones we'd be able to push through, though it'd be a long trek through some manned parts of the fortress to get there. Could always go after Hawke, too, probably somewhere in the keep."
"Would they stop fighting if we killed him?" Rom asked, arms crossed, brow creased in thought.
Séverine shook her head. "I doubt it. Most are too far gone to lay down their arms. Those that aren't are likely too afraid of the rest to do it. Still, it could throw them into disarray."
Leon was frowning down at the map. He didn't disapprove of the thought—Khari knew him well enough to say that. But he clearly had some reservations nonetheless. "We need something decisive," he said. "If we're going to take the risk, it ought to be for something that has a realistic chance of helping us break the siege."
"But what, though?" Stel replied, a touch of frustration creeping into her tone. The dark circles under her eyes spoke to little rest for her either, probably because she'd been helping Asala keep her friend alive. "Sometimes it seems like they're barely human. They don't seem to eat, I'm not even sure they sleep. I'd say we should destroy their supplies and starve them out, but I don't think there's any such possibility."
“Not for food, perhaps, but I think you've the right idea." Cyrus spoke up from his sister's elbow, glancing around at the others before lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “They're very dependent on their lyrium. We could steal it out from under their noses and have them out of the keep in another couple of days maximum, I'd guess."
Khari considered that for a moment, kitting her brows and deciding it was worth piping up. “Or we could kill a lot of birds with one stone castle." She crossed her arms, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “We all know lyrium explodes. Why not blow the stash up instead of just stealing it? Bring the keep down on their heads if we're lucky. I bet Ril or Widget could work up some charges for it."
Rilien considered the idea for several second, then nodded. “That is well within our capabilities, yes. Perhaps destroying the lyrium in combination with slaying their leader would be most effective."
"If that's the plan, we'll need a team." It wasn't too hard to predict what Séverine was going to say next. "I will lead it. If this is where we take down Carver, I'm not sitting out."
"I'm in, too." Ves had been lurking at the edge of the room, listening, but spoke up now, loud and clear. "You'll need more than one shield, if the reds catch on to you."
Stel looked a bit like she'd bitten into something sour for a half-second, before her face smoothed out again. "Much as I'd like to join you," she said quietly, "I probably shouldn't. The last time I was around any quantity of red lyrium, it... didn't go well." Which made sense. Mages were even more sensitive to it than ordinary people.
“I'll go, too." Khari couldn't say she felt any hesitation in volunteering, even. These fuckers had messed with the people she cared about long enough. And she felt like she owed as many of them an asskicking as she could dole out. Revenge for what that damn behemoth had done to her legs.
“You will need someone who can set the charges." Rilien didn't do great around red lyrium either, from what Khari knew, but he had a point, and Widget wasn't exactly a combatant, so he was probably the better choice of the two people who'd know what to do.
"I'll go as well," Leon said after a long moment. "This needs to end, and I can handle more red lyrium exposure than most." He glanced between the Inquisitors. "That would leave the two of you in command of the siege, unless Romulus planned to come as well?"
"I'm better put to use inside those walls than back here." Rom sounded pretty sure of it. He definitely had more practice sneaking than he did giving commands, at any rate. He gave Stel an apologetic look. "Sorry. Feels like I'm leaving you with the hard job."
Stel sighed slightly, a wry smile tilting her mouth. "Who, me? I'm just running an entire siege. Nothing to write home about." There was a touch of genuine uneasiness in the statement, but she shook her head as if to banish it. "I'll be fine. All of you just focus on coming back alive, please."
Séverine took stock of the group that had volunteered. "Six should be more than enough. We'll just have to hope Carver hasn't surrounded himself with knights, hiding in the keep." She turned to Lia. "If we need a quick escape, what's our best option?"
The way Lia hesitated implied there wasn't a good one. She surveyed the map. "If you can lose pursuit, then back the way you came would be best. If not... some of the walls will have deep enough snow on the other side to throw yourself in. Might not break your legs."
"That reassuring." The Knight-Commander didn't seem especially bothered, however. "We'll wait for nightfall before moving in. Don't stop the trebuchet crews, we need to keep them focused on the army. Just... maybe tell them to aim for the walls, and not the interior."
"Duly noted."
Night fell, and as promised, the siege didn't relent. They didn't bother igniting the stones that the trebuchets were lobbing at and over the walls, so now there were just periodic whooshes of heavy objects flying away into the darkness, followed by thunderous booms a few seconds later, when they smashed against the walls or interior structures of the fortress. The walls had to be weak by now, crumbling in places. Still, unless they caved entirely, assaulting them or the gates head on was a violent proposition. The goal was to preserve the lives of their troops, not throw them away.
Occasionally something would come back at them out of the darkness. Spikes of red lyrium, typically. The horrors inside had grown bolder in the darkness, sometimes climbing to the battlements and launching projectiles into the air. They could get some remarkable distance on them, outranging any Inquisition longbow. It only took a few seriously wounded for the Inquisition to learn its lesson, and shift their forward troops back.
The infiltration group left fully geared along a path Lia and the other scouts had watched for them, one that cut low through an icy ravine carved into the mountainside. It wasn't the easiest trek in the dark, but the moon came out halfway through, the light catching on the ice enough that they didn't need torches.
"Here we are." Lia pointed to her left as the path ended and they climbed uphill back into deep snow. She spoke in low tones, for obvious reasons; the east wall of Suledin Fortress was dead ahead. Already they could hear the soft trickling of the stream coming down from the mountain, icy water flowing under the wall.
The grate was as rusted as Lia said it was, but they still needed to get through it. It was a lot quieter here than in the army camp, though the occasional cracks of boulders on stone were much louder now that they were on the receiving end. Hopefully not too close to the receiving end.
They crossed the gap to the base of the wall quickly and quietly, leaving Lia at the end of the cover while they pushed on ahead. Séverine was closest to the stream, and knelt to examine what they were dealing with.
"Not sure what the best way through will be. Romulus, maybe you should—"
She was cut off by Ves's boot smashing against the grate, the thin iron pipes snapping off at their edges. The majority of it fell into the stream, and Ves was quick to fish it out and toss it back into the snow, where it landed with a quiet thud. Wordlessly he lowered himself down and in, sliding his shield to the other side and crawling under to get through.
Séverine shook her head. "Fair enough. Let's move." She pushed in after Ves, disappearing from sight.
Khari was next, finding that her small size made it probably a little easier for her to move around than the others, though it was still nowhere near tall enough for her to stand upright in. Her armor occasionally caught on the stone, scraping softly until she shifted out of the way, and she wrinkled her nose in irritation. Fortunately, her footwear was more than enough to keep the icy water out and away from her skin—this was hypothermia weather. It wasn't often her clan ventured anywhere near here because it tended to stay this way for most of the year.
They emerged on the other side to find what might optimistically be called a copse of trees, except most of them were dead with the cold, closer to petrification than life. A few stubborn conifers held onto their needles, knotty bark defense enough against the harsh chill. Khari took a second to brush herself as free of grit and stone as she was going to get. The area was quiet—no sign of any reds anywhere.
"Stay where the snow's not if you can," Rom advised, for obvious reasons. Snow was a rather loud surface to walk on. They moved under the trees first, where there was at least a little less. After that were pathways that had clearly been tread often, with how much the snow had been either packed down or cleared altogether. The reds weren't actively manning these sections of the fortress, but they were definitely still patrolling them.
They worked their way up, having studied the drawn up layout of the fortress before they made their way inside. It wasn't long before the sounds of voices reached their ears, orders being shouted and received. Quiet the red templars were not, barring those few among them the troops had taken to calling shadows. They were lucky enough not to run into any of them here.
The first patrol they came upon was at the base of the fortress's main keep. The structure itself was massive vertically, extending up along an outcropping of the mountain, several levels they would undoubtedly need to ascend, no doubt with resistance. For now they positioned themselves on either side of an interior gate, listening to the sound of approaching footsteps. Two pairs were lighter, normal sounds of boots in the snow, but the third was heavier. A knight.
Séverine commanded silently, gesturing to Rom, Rilien, Leon, and Khari that they'd be on the takedowns. Rom and Rilien for the normal troops, leaving the knight to Leon and Khari. They crouched low at the wall, waiting for the patrol to pass through. Only when both soldiers and the knight had done so did Rom make his move, darting out in unison with the Spymaster and leaping on the soldier on the left of the group. His blade flashed up and found the throat before they were even on the ground. Rilien went low, slashing for the other soldier's knee with a frost-enchanted dagger. The first strike left him hobbled, and the second found his throat, dropping him to the snow.
The swift attack occupied the knight's attention in front of him, leaving Khari and Leon a window of opportunity to strike. She went first, using Inga's superior reach to lash out where he couldn't do the same. The knight raised an arm to block, metal meeting metal with a clang, and he took her blade in both hands, attempting to wrench it from her grip. Khari grinned, and let it go without a fight, throwing him off when he met much less resistance than expected. It would have been a dumb move if she was fighting alone—but she wasn't.
The overbalance turned out to be fatal. Leon, moving in from the knight's blind spot, tripped him, and the heavy treads became a heavier thud as his back hit the ground. A hard stomp liberated Inga from the templar's grip and may well have fractured part of his elbow. It wouldn't matter anyway: Leon picked up Khari's sword in a smooth motion and stabbed it down into the gap between helmet and breastplate, wrenching it to the side before flipping the blade and tossing it back to her hilt-first.
She caught it with raised eyebrows. She'd never actually seen him use a weapon before. Not that she was surprised he knew how. “You've been holding out on us, Leon."
There was a movement under his helmet that might have been a smile. "Only by omission."
Séverine had been watching ahead with Ves while they worked. "Looks like we're still clear. Let's keep moving."
The bodies were quickly dragged to the side of the wall and out of sight, the blood covered with some extra snow. It wouldn't buy them much time if anyone came this way, but every few seconds could count in these sorts of situations. They pushed through the door, keeping a tight formation, and found themselves in what initially looked like it had to be the red lyrium supply. A few seconds more examination showed otherwise.
The red lyrium appeared to be growing out of the walls of the keep on their left side, behind several large caged-in areas. Shards of it were littered too haphazardly around the ground for it to be such a valuable supply. To add to that, there were no guards. Just these cages, all seemingly empty save for the huge chunks of red lyrium inside them.
And then in the last cell, the red lyrium shifted and moved, pieces of it cracking apart almost as though they'd grown into each other over a prolonged period of stillness. A few seconds more and Khari could identify something alive, something massive, the red lyrium growths attached to its very body. There was a foot, red lyrium having replaced the missing toe nails, and the length of the leg it was attached to had to be five times Khari's height, at least. A hand settled down in the snow, shifting the entire figure's body to better face the intruders outside its cage.
And there was its face, wickedly scarred and mutilated from what had to be an old battle wound, criss-crossing across its singular eye. The scarring extended to the eye itself as well, leaving it discolored and somewhat milky, but from the way it eventually settled on them, it had to be able to see, if not particularly well.
“What the—?" There was something familiar about the creature's form, red lyrium aside. Something occasionally glimpsed from a distance through the massive trees of the deeper Graves. Was this really...?
“Red lyrium giant." Rilien's flat tone confirmed her hypothesis. “This one was in Kirkwall." His hands had drifted to the hilts of his knives, but he did not draw them.
Khari's jaw clenched. She didn't really want to fight it, either. Not because of the challenge—everyone knew she lived for those. “Bastards." The word referred to the Red Templars, of course. “Giants aren't normally violent. Just... big. This is..." She grimaced. It was kind of like the feeling of having to fight the dragon, only with even less good reason.
"Wrong." Ves finished the sentence for her. Of everyone in the group he was closest to the bars holding it back. It didn't look like they should be able to keep it there, if it wanted to escape. Khari could even see its massive club on the ground behind it, made all the more deadly by the shards of red lyrium growing in spikes out of it. Maybe there was something with the amount of red lyrium in there, weakening it or making it dormant.
"They're keeping it in reserve," Séverine concluded. "Holding it until we're able to break through, no doubt. I don't want the army fighting this thing, half blind or not."
Rom's eyes were locked on its singular one. Damaged though it was, it was easy to see that it was in some amount of pain. Probably constant. "So what do we do? I don't know if there's an easy way for us to kill it."
"We should free him," Ves proposed, as though it was the obvious thing to do. "Trapped behind bars, twisted into something he isn't, driven to kill from constant pain. Free him, and I'll bet he takes his club to the Reds. If he breaks out of the fortress and runs into the army, at least it's not in a confined space on the enemy's terms."
Leon had been silent up to this point, squinting at the giant, his eyes occasionally moving to the wall behind it. "I think... the lyrium stores may be on the other side of that wall. Perhaps that's why he stays? No doubt withdrawal would be painful, but he would understand that the pain is least here." He did not sound pleased to have figured this out.
“I'd say let him go, too, but... what if he's staying here because they can control him? Then even if we let him out, he'll go straight for the army or something?" This red lyrium stuff was well beyond her. She didn't know the first thing about how it worked, but it seemed like they had to have some way of controlling the giant, or it would be too great a risk to keep him here.
“It is not so direct as that, from what I have observed." Rilien shook his head. “The red templars are wary of fighting close to it. Given that we plan to set explosives on the other side of this wall, the logical thing to do is release it."
That was apparently all Ves needed to hear, as he was already working on unlocking the gate. The entire cell wall seemed to be part of it, the only way they could conceivably fit the giant inside in the first place.
Séverine and Romulus stepped back out of the way as the gate swung open, allowing the giant to exit if he wished. He looked confused at first. No doubt he expected different people to be the ones to eventually let him out, probably in a much more painful process. Eventually, though, a hand slowly reached for the club behind him, grasping the weapon and pulling it to the front. He began to crawl, on hands and knees, away from the red lyrium growths in the wall.
Once he was clear of the gate he actually had room to stand up, and did so, ascending until he towered above all of them. His head lolled down, looking between all of them. If he remembered Rilien at all, he didn't show it, instead seeming to regard all of them as uninteresting. In fact, he didn't seem to have any interest in doing anything besides standing up. Likely he didn't want to stray too far from the lyrium. Still, at least he would be out of the worst of the blast they were about to make.
Khari released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Rilien's observations aside, there was something plenty daunting about facing down the giant without drawing weapons. But it seemed for now at least that it had been a good decision. “O-kay. Let's... maybe get moving now."
It still kind of seemed like a bad idea to wait around for the giant to decide what he wanted to do, and no doubt someone would notice he was out of his cage in short order.
But he seemed to be stable, even if healing was inexplicably slow. Asala was good at what she did, though, and pretty much everyone knew that, so the mood was picking up again. Meanwhile, they still wailed away at the fortress with Lucien's trebuchets, and waited for... well, she wasn't sure, exactly. An opportunity, maybe.
At the moment, most of the command team was gathered in one of the large canvas tents they'd set up upon arrival. Khari was actually kind of surprised she'd been invited to participate, strategy training with Leon or not. She still had a sense of her own position in the Inquisition, though, and stood a few feet back from the map table that hosted most of those who were actually in charge. She'd contribute if there was an opportunity to say something useful, but she wasn't going to insist otherwise.
Lia was in the process of walking the others through the situation. "It's a huge fortress, too big for the reds to properly man. They've actually given up a few sections of the wall, here," she pointed to a spot on the map laid out on the table in front of her, "and here. These aren't feasible to attack, the terrain is awful, but here on the east side there's a drain, a hole allowing a stream to pass under. The metal's rusted and weak. Could provide a way in to an undefended area of the fortress, but sending any more than a few would be a huge risk. No easy way out once they're in."
She looked tired. She'd been at work almost nonstop since the siege began, taking only a few hours of rest. No doubt she was taking Cor's injury harder than most. They were both from Kirkwall, after all, and friends since well before the Inquisition was founded.
Séverine seemed to sense it too. Her tone was softer than usual. "And what would a small group hope to do, once inside?"
Lia shrugged. "Well... the north gate has the lightest defense of the ones we'd be able to push through, though it'd be a long trek through some manned parts of the fortress to get there. Could always go after Hawke, too, probably somewhere in the keep."
"Would they stop fighting if we killed him?" Rom asked, arms crossed, brow creased in thought.
Séverine shook her head. "I doubt it. Most are too far gone to lay down their arms. Those that aren't are likely too afraid of the rest to do it. Still, it could throw them into disarray."
Leon was frowning down at the map. He didn't disapprove of the thought—Khari knew him well enough to say that. But he clearly had some reservations nonetheless. "We need something decisive," he said. "If we're going to take the risk, it ought to be for something that has a realistic chance of helping us break the siege."
"But what, though?" Stel replied, a touch of frustration creeping into her tone. The dark circles under her eyes spoke to little rest for her either, probably because she'd been helping Asala keep her friend alive. "Sometimes it seems like they're barely human. They don't seem to eat, I'm not even sure they sleep. I'd say we should destroy their supplies and starve them out, but I don't think there's any such possibility."
“Not for food, perhaps, but I think you've the right idea." Cyrus spoke up from his sister's elbow, glancing around at the others before lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “They're very dependent on their lyrium. We could steal it out from under their noses and have them out of the keep in another couple of days maximum, I'd guess."
Khari considered that for a moment, kitting her brows and deciding it was worth piping up. “Or we could kill a lot of birds with one stone castle." She crossed her arms, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “We all know lyrium explodes. Why not blow the stash up instead of just stealing it? Bring the keep down on their heads if we're lucky. I bet Ril or Widget could work up some charges for it."
Rilien considered the idea for several second, then nodded. “That is well within our capabilities, yes. Perhaps destroying the lyrium in combination with slaying their leader would be most effective."
"If that's the plan, we'll need a team." It wasn't too hard to predict what Séverine was going to say next. "I will lead it. If this is where we take down Carver, I'm not sitting out."
"I'm in, too." Ves had been lurking at the edge of the room, listening, but spoke up now, loud and clear. "You'll need more than one shield, if the reds catch on to you."
Stel looked a bit like she'd bitten into something sour for a half-second, before her face smoothed out again. "Much as I'd like to join you," she said quietly, "I probably shouldn't. The last time I was around any quantity of red lyrium, it... didn't go well." Which made sense. Mages were even more sensitive to it than ordinary people.
“I'll go, too." Khari couldn't say she felt any hesitation in volunteering, even. These fuckers had messed with the people she cared about long enough. And she felt like she owed as many of them an asskicking as she could dole out. Revenge for what that damn behemoth had done to her legs.
“You will need someone who can set the charges." Rilien didn't do great around red lyrium either, from what Khari knew, but he had a point, and Widget wasn't exactly a combatant, so he was probably the better choice of the two people who'd know what to do.
"I'll go as well," Leon said after a long moment. "This needs to end, and I can handle more red lyrium exposure than most." He glanced between the Inquisitors. "That would leave the two of you in command of the siege, unless Romulus planned to come as well?"
"I'm better put to use inside those walls than back here." Rom sounded pretty sure of it. He definitely had more practice sneaking than he did giving commands, at any rate. He gave Stel an apologetic look. "Sorry. Feels like I'm leaving you with the hard job."
Stel sighed slightly, a wry smile tilting her mouth. "Who, me? I'm just running an entire siege. Nothing to write home about." There was a touch of genuine uneasiness in the statement, but she shook her head as if to banish it. "I'll be fine. All of you just focus on coming back alive, please."
Séverine took stock of the group that had volunteered. "Six should be more than enough. We'll just have to hope Carver hasn't surrounded himself with knights, hiding in the keep." She turned to Lia. "If we need a quick escape, what's our best option?"
The way Lia hesitated implied there wasn't a good one. She surveyed the map. "If you can lose pursuit, then back the way you came would be best. If not... some of the walls will have deep enough snow on the other side to throw yourself in. Might not break your legs."
"That reassuring." The Knight-Commander didn't seem especially bothered, however. "We'll wait for nightfall before moving in. Don't stop the trebuchet crews, we need to keep them focused on the army. Just... maybe tell them to aim for the walls, and not the interior."
"Duly noted."
Night fell, and as promised, the siege didn't relent. They didn't bother igniting the stones that the trebuchets were lobbing at and over the walls, so now there were just periodic whooshes of heavy objects flying away into the darkness, followed by thunderous booms a few seconds later, when they smashed against the walls or interior structures of the fortress. The walls had to be weak by now, crumbling in places. Still, unless they caved entirely, assaulting them or the gates head on was a violent proposition. The goal was to preserve the lives of their troops, not throw them away.
Occasionally something would come back at them out of the darkness. Spikes of red lyrium, typically. The horrors inside had grown bolder in the darkness, sometimes climbing to the battlements and launching projectiles into the air. They could get some remarkable distance on them, outranging any Inquisition longbow. It only took a few seriously wounded for the Inquisition to learn its lesson, and shift their forward troops back.
The infiltration group left fully geared along a path Lia and the other scouts had watched for them, one that cut low through an icy ravine carved into the mountainside. It wasn't the easiest trek in the dark, but the moon came out halfway through, the light catching on the ice enough that they didn't need torches.
"Here we are." Lia pointed to her left as the path ended and they climbed uphill back into deep snow. She spoke in low tones, for obvious reasons; the east wall of Suledin Fortress was dead ahead. Already they could hear the soft trickling of the stream coming down from the mountain, icy water flowing under the wall.
The grate was as rusted as Lia said it was, but they still needed to get through it. It was a lot quieter here than in the army camp, though the occasional cracks of boulders on stone were much louder now that they were on the receiving end. Hopefully not too close to the receiving end.
They crossed the gap to the base of the wall quickly and quietly, leaving Lia at the end of the cover while they pushed on ahead. Séverine was closest to the stream, and knelt to examine what they were dealing with.
"Not sure what the best way through will be. Romulus, maybe you should—"
She was cut off by Ves's boot smashing against the grate, the thin iron pipes snapping off at their edges. The majority of it fell into the stream, and Ves was quick to fish it out and toss it back into the snow, where it landed with a quiet thud. Wordlessly he lowered himself down and in, sliding his shield to the other side and crawling under to get through.
Séverine shook her head. "Fair enough. Let's move." She pushed in after Ves, disappearing from sight.
Khari was next, finding that her small size made it probably a little easier for her to move around than the others, though it was still nowhere near tall enough for her to stand upright in. Her armor occasionally caught on the stone, scraping softly until she shifted out of the way, and she wrinkled her nose in irritation. Fortunately, her footwear was more than enough to keep the icy water out and away from her skin—this was hypothermia weather. It wasn't often her clan ventured anywhere near here because it tended to stay this way for most of the year.
They emerged on the other side to find what might optimistically be called a copse of trees, except most of them were dead with the cold, closer to petrification than life. A few stubborn conifers held onto their needles, knotty bark defense enough against the harsh chill. Khari took a second to brush herself as free of grit and stone as she was going to get. The area was quiet—no sign of any reds anywhere.
"Stay where the snow's not if you can," Rom advised, for obvious reasons. Snow was a rather loud surface to walk on. They moved under the trees first, where there was at least a little less. After that were pathways that had clearly been tread often, with how much the snow had been either packed down or cleared altogether. The reds weren't actively manning these sections of the fortress, but they were definitely still patrolling them.
They worked their way up, having studied the drawn up layout of the fortress before they made their way inside. It wasn't long before the sounds of voices reached their ears, orders being shouted and received. Quiet the red templars were not, barring those few among them the troops had taken to calling shadows. They were lucky enough not to run into any of them here.
The first patrol they came upon was at the base of the fortress's main keep. The structure itself was massive vertically, extending up along an outcropping of the mountain, several levels they would undoubtedly need to ascend, no doubt with resistance. For now they positioned themselves on either side of an interior gate, listening to the sound of approaching footsteps. Two pairs were lighter, normal sounds of boots in the snow, but the third was heavier. A knight.
Séverine commanded silently, gesturing to Rom, Rilien, Leon, and Khari that they'd be on the takedowns. Rom and Rilien for the normal troops, leaving the knight to Leon and Khari. They crouched low at the wall, waiting for the patrol to pass through. Only when both soldiers and the knight had done so did Rom make his move, darting out in unison with the Spymaster and leaping on the soldier on the left of the group. His blade flashed up and found the throat before they were even on the ground. Rilien went low, slashing for the other soldier's knee with a frost-enchanted dagger. The first strike left him hobbled, and the second found his throat, dropping him to the snow.
The swift attack occupied the knight's attention in front of him, leaving Khari and Leon a window of opportunity to strike. She went first, using Inga's superior reach to lash out where he couldn't do the same. The knight raised an arm to block, metal meeting metal with a clang, and he took her blade in both hands, attempting to wrench it from her grip. Khari grinned, and let it go without a fight, throwing him off when he met much less resistance than expected. It would have been a dumb move if she was fighting alone—but she wasn't.
The overbalance turned out to be fatal. Leon, moving in from the knight's blind spot, tripped him, and the heavy treads became a heavier thud as his back hit the ground. A hard stomp liberated Inga from the templar's grip and may well have fractured part of his elbow. It wouldn't matter anyway: Leon picked up Khari's sword in a smooth motion and stabbed it down into the gap between helmet and breastplate, wrenching it to the side before flipping the blade and tossing it back to her hilt-first.
She caught it with raised eyebrows. She'd never actually seen him use a weapon before. Not that she was surprised he knew how. “You've been holding out on us, Leon."
There was a movement under his helmet that might have been a smile. "Only by omission."
Séverine had been watching ahead with Ves while they worked. "Looks like we're still clear. Let's keep moving."
The bodies were quickly dragged to the side of the wall and out of sight, the blood covered with some extra snow. It wouldn't buy them much time if anyone came this way, but every few seconds could count in these sorts of situations. They pushed through the door, keeping a tight formation, and found themselves in what initially looked like it had to be the red lyrium supply. A few seconds more examination showed otherwise.
The red lyrium appeared to be growing out of the walls of the keep on their left side, behind several large caged-in areas. Shards of it were littered too haphazardly around the ground for it to be such a valuable supply. To add to that, there were no guards. Just these cages, all seemingly empty save for the huge chunks of red lyrium inside them.
And then in the last cell, the red lyrium shifted and moved, pieces of it cracking apart almost as though they'd grown into each other over a prolonged period of stillness. A few seconds more and Khari could identify something alive, something massive, the red lyrium growths attached to its very body. There was a foot, red lyrium having replaced the missing toe nails, and the length of the leg it was attached to had to be five times Khari's height, at least. A hand settled down in the snow, shifting the entire figure's body to better face the intruders outside its cage.
And there was its face, wickedly scarred and mutilated from what had to be an old battle wound, criss-crossing across its singular eye. The scarring extended to the eye itself as well, leaving it discolored and somewhat milky, but from the way it eventually settled on them, it had to be able to see, if not particularly well.
“What the—?" There was something familiar about the creature's form, red lyrium aside. Something occasionally glimpsed from a distance through the massive trees of the deeper Graves. Was this really...?
“Red lyrium giant." Rilien's flat tone confirmed her hypothesis. “This one was in Kirkwall." His hands had drifted to the hilts of his knives, but he did not draw them.
Khari's jaw clenched. She didn't really want to fight it, either. Not because of the challenge—everyone knew she lived for those. “Bastards." The word referred to the Red Templars, of course. “Giants aren't normally violent. Just... big. This is..." She grimaced. It was kind of like the feeling of having to fight the dragon, only with even less good reason.
"Wrong." Ves finished the sentence for her. Of everyone in the group he was closest to the bars holding it back. It didn't look like they should be able to keep it there, if it wanted to escape. Khari could even see its massive club on the ground behind it, made all the more deadly by the shards of red lyrium growing in spikes out of it. Maybe there was something with the amount of red lyrium in there, weakening it or making it dormant.
"They're keeping it in reserve," Séverine concluded. "Holding it until we're able to break through, no doubt. I don't want the army fighting this thing, half blind or not."
Rom's eyes were locked on its singular one. Damaged though it was, it was easy to see that it was in some amount of pain. Probably constant. "So what do we do? I don't know if there's an easy way for us to kill it."
"We should free him," Ves proposed, as though it was the obvious thing to do. "Trapped behind bars, twisted into something he isn't, driven to kill from constant pain. Free him, and I'll bet he takes his club to the Reds. If he breaks out of the fortress and runs into the army, at least it's not in a confined space on the enemy's terms."
Leon had been silent up to this point, squinting at the giant, his eyes occasionally moving to the wall behind it. "I think... the lyrium stores may be on the other side of that wall. Perhaps that's why he stays? No doubt withdrawal would be painful, but he would understand that the pain is least here." He did not sound pleased to have figured this out.
“I'd say let him go, too, but... what if he's staying here because they can control him? Then even if we let him out, he'll go straight for the army or something?" This red lyrium stuff was well beyond her. She didn't know the first thing about how it worked, but it seemed like they had to have some way of controlling the giant, or it would be too great a risk to keep him here.
“It is not so direct as that, from what I have observed." Rilien shook his head. “The red templars are wary of fighting close to it. Given that we plan to set explosives on the other side of this wall, the logical thing to do is release it."
That was apparently all Ves needed to hear, as he was already working on unlocking the gate. The entire cell wall seemed to be part of it, the only way they could conceivably fit the giant inside in the first place.
Séverine and Romulus stepped back out of the way as the gate swung open, allowing the giant to exit if he wished. He looked confused at first. No doubt he expected different people to be the ones to eventually let him out, probably in a much more painful process. Eventually, though, a hand slowly reached for the club behind him, grasping the weapon and pulling it to the front. He began to crawl, on hands and knees, away from the red lyrium growths in the wall.
Once he was clear of the gate he actually had room to stand up, and did so, ascending until he towered above all of them. His head lolled down, looking between all of them. If he remembered Rilien at all, he didn't show it, instead seeming to regard all of them as uninteresting. In fact, he didn't seem to have any interest in doing anything besides standing up. Likely he didn't want to stray too far from the lyrium. Still, at least he would be out of the worst of the blast they were about to make.
Khari released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Rilien's observations aside, there was something plenty daunting about facing down the giant without drawing weapons. But it seemed for now at least that it had been a good decision. “O-kay. Let's... maybe get moving now."
It still kind of seemed like a bad idea to wait around for the giant to decide what he wanted to do, and no doubt someone would notice he was out of his cage in short order.