Shatter Me

Chapter 1

"Wake up Andreas. We are in trouble..."

Andreas Trevelyan slowly opened his eyes. Though the area was low lit with torches, occasional blinding bursts of green light assaulted his eyes, forcing him to screw them shut tightly. Worst, when the flashes happened, a blinding pain crawled up from his hand into his arm.

He forced his eyes to focus on the offending hand, a glowing green gash in his open palm that he immediately clenched when another burst of light and pain happened.

"It feels like the fade, but wrong." The whisper came.

Andreas looked at the guards that surrounded him. Their swords drawn and pointed at him despite his kneeling position and shackled wrists. He opened his mouth to speak when a door slammed open. A woman strode straight up to him, while a smaller quieter woman followed behind her at a much slower pace.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now?" the dark hair woman hissed in his ear. "The conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you."

Andreas quirked an eyebrow at her, but otherwise said nothing. Inside though, he panicked. Was Andriana alive? He had told her not to come to the conclave but to stay behind in Haven, just in case the Templars tried something. He wanted to ensure she got away. She had not been happy at being left behind and had even threatened to follow behind regardless.

Unsatisfied with his silence, the dark haired woman grabbed his glowing hand and demanded: "Explain this!"

"I can't." Andreas settled on the truth.

"What do you mean you can't!?" The dark haired woman snapped.

"I don't know what that is, or how it got there." He coldly answered.

"Something has been in our mind. I feel the remains of another presence, though it is gone." The voice whispered through his head.

"You're lying!" The dark haired woman barked, attacking him.

At once the red haired woman came forward and pushed her back. "We need him Cassandra."

The pair turned to stare at him. In a fit of anger he snarled, "Whatever you think I did, I am innocent!"

"Do you remember what happened? How this began?" The red haired woman asked now, seemingly the calmer of the two.

Anger still coloring his voice he answered, "I remember running. Things were chasing me, and then... a woman?"

"A woman?" The red head questioned.

"She reached out to me, but then..." He trailed off with a sigh. As hard as he tried to grasp at the threads of a memory just out of reach, they danced away.

"Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take him to the rift." Cassandra told the red headed woman. The now named woman, Leliana, answered with a sharp nod and turned away. Only once she had exited the dungeon did Cassandra turn back to him. She held her hand out and a guard stepped out of the shadows and placed a key in her hand.

She knelt down before him and quickly unlocked the manacles from his wrists, only to bind them again with rope another soldier handed her.

"What did happen?" Andreas asked now, settling for more information instead of another fit of rage or a plea.

"It would be easier to show you." She answered before trying to tug him to his feet.

However, he barely budged. At her disgruntled look, which he felt might be her permanent expression, he got up to a knee and then stood. He towered over her, her head just coming to his chin. Immediately the soldiers around him stepped back. His height had seemed to make him far more imposing in the recent months. Templars. Other mages. Even people he had passed traveling seemingly unused to such height unless the Avaar were around.

Cassandra eyed him momentarily, and maybe a touch warily, before turning on her heel and marching out of the dungeon. Andreas took a moment to roll his shoulders and stretch as much as he could before he fell in step. As they walked down a hall, dodged low hanging braziers, then up a flight of stairs. They arrived into...a chantry.

"What sort of chantry has a dungeon?" He muttered.

His question went unanswered by the woman who instead pushed the doors of the chantry open.

Andreas hissed and brought his hands up, shielding his face as he turned away. The light was blinding, and tinged with the same green that glowed in his hand.

"We call it the breach. It is a massive rift into the world of demons. It's not the only, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the conclave." Cassandra told him.

"An explosion can do that?" He asked skeptically.

"This one did." Cassandra responded tersely.

Andreas bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying: "You don't like people questioning you, do you?"

"Unless we act," She said, walking toward him. "The breach may grow until it swallows the world."

As if to prove her point, the breach pulsed, ripping the sky open just a bit more, and the mark on his hand throbbed in response. He felt a ripping sensation that caused him to cry out, dropping to his knees. He clenched his fist tight, holding it against his stomach. It was as if being that much closer to the breach made the pain worse.

Inside his mind, Pride roared, and for a moment, he feared losing control.

"Steady..." He breathed out slowly to himself. Willing the demon and himself to stay in control.

Cassandra took a knee before him. "Each time the breach expands, so does the mark on your hand. And it is killing you."

"You fucking think!" Pride roared in his head.

"It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn't much time." She told him.

"So I don't really have a choice about this?" He asked sarcastically.

He watched her brows lower, maybe in anger or just pure disapproval of his words and said, "None of us have a choice." She grabbed at him again, pulling as hard as she could and forcing him to come to his feet.

Andreas towered over her again, and even looked down his nose at her.

"Didn't think our bargain would end this soon." Pride told him softly. "But we must look for little sister."

Andreas mentally agreed, eyes casting about to the people that lined the path Cassandra was forcing him to walk. People yelled at him, spat, and cursed him with every step they took. He cast his eyes about, looking as fast as he could for the pace the woman was setting. As they passed what appeared to be a blacksmith, he glimpsed her. She stood behind some people, but her large blue eyes were watery as she stared at him in disbelief.

He silently shushed her, happy with knowing she was alive and cast his gaze forward. Whatever else happened, he would walk into it. His sister was alive and had the ability to get away. No one left in Haven would know that the pair of them were tied, as only the scantest of mages stayed behind. And they would protect their own.

"They have decided you are guilty." Cassandra told him. "They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, Head of the Chantry. The conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and Templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead."

Two guards pushed open the doors to a bridge he had passed through only what seemed hours before. Somehow, he felt it was probably more like days.

"We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves. As she did. Until the breach is sealed." Cassandra touched his arm and turned him about, cutting the bindings on his hand. "There will be a trial. I can promise no more. Come, it is not far."

"Where are you taking me?" Andreas demanded.

"Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the breach." Cassandra answered. She then turned to the guards at the second set of doors. "Open the gates, we are heading into the valley."

"Right away Lady Cassandra." One answered.

The pair headed up the path, passing soldiers guarding barricades and others rushing back toward Haven.

"Maker! Its the end of the world!" One cried, as he passed them, clutching a bleeding arm with claw marks.

"Terror demon." Pride whispered at sight of the wound.

As they continued their trek up the path, the breach pulsed again. Andreas gasped loudly and crashed to his knees before falling to his side in the snow. He buried his face in the cold, gritting his teeth, and willing himself to keep control.

He felt Cassandra's hands on his back as she rolled him onto his side, and then helped him sit up. She tugged on him again to get him standing. Her hands dusted off the mud and snow from his arms as she patted him sympathetically. "The pulses are coming faster now. The larger the breach grows, the more rifts appear. The more demons we face."

"How did I survive the blast?" Andreas asked, starting to follow the woman again.

Cassandra paused, as if unsure what to say. "They say you...stepped out of a rift, then fell unconscious. They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was. And everything farther in the valley was laid to waste. Including the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Though I suppose you will see soon enough."

They reached a bridge and as soon as they started to cross it, a massive fade stone was jutted from the breach and struck the bridge.

Andreas and Cassandra both cried out as the bridge below them buckled and gave way. They tumbled with the large blocks of stone and came to rest on the frozen river below. Andreas hissed in a breath as the ice below them cracked, but thankfully did not break.

He groaned as he held his side, wondering if his ribs were just bruised or possibly broken.

"Bruised." Pride answered. "Now get up. Can you not feel it?"

Before Andreas could even wonder what the demon was talking about, he stood as another fade stone struck the ground only a dozen or so yards from them. The ice however, showed no impact. But from where that space was, a demon rose.

"Stay behind me!" Cassandra ordered as she rushed to engage it.

Andreas however, let his eyes focus on the boiling green and black energy that moved slowly toward him. He cast his gaze about, surprised to see a stave among the rubble. With a cast back at the roiling energy that stopped before him, he dove for the stave as another demon made itself known.

Not even giving the demon a chance to gather it's wits about it, Andreas stuck his stave to the ground, forcing lightning into the demon's body. It screeched in rage and moved to strike him.

Andreas danced back and cast a fireball, ending the demon's brief existence in the mortal world. He cast his eyes back to Cassandra in time to see her run the other demon through with her sword.

When her eyes fell upon him, they widened before a glare affixed itself. She charged toward him, sword held in front of her as if to defend herself.

"Drop your weapon now, mage!" The last word was spat out in such a way that Andreas felt his own lip curl.

"A demon attacked me. What was I supposed to do?" He asked.

"You don't need to fight!" Cassandra hissed back.

"So I have your word it won't happen again?" Andreas countered.

He watched a few emotions cross her eyes before she sighed and sheathed her sword. "You're right. I cannot protect you, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless." She turned and walked a few steps before saying over her shoulder. "And you did not run when you had the opportunity."

"Well damn, now that you mentioned it." Andreas joked, clenching tightly to the stave. It wasn't his, and felt foreign in his hands. After his sister and he fled the tower with others, he had the help of a Tranquil to create a new one better suited to his new height, and the runes had been suited for his talents mostly dealing in lightning. This stave obviously helped favor those who dealt more in fire damage. His stave was almost made to seem more like a spear in its design than the clunky short staff he was holding. It seemed someone had affixed the top of a mace to it.

"Here, take these." Cassandra said suddenly, passing a bag to him. He opened it and peered inside. "Health potions in case you need them." Andreas nodded before securing the bag on his belt.

He frowned noting that his coin pouch was gone, as well as the other small bags and leather pouches he had attached to the belt. He had no coin and no food even if he did see the chance to flee.

He and Cassandra continued to battle their way slowly up the mountain, killing demons and shades as they appeared before them. They found a few bodies along the path and much to Cassandra's disgust, he removed their coin and any potions or enchanted items he could feel on them.

"Must you?" She asked.

"Yes, I must." Andreas snapped. "You guys removed everything that I had from me. My coin, healing herbs, personal items! I have to replace them somehow. I doubt they are even around for me to reclaim, even if my innocence was proven to you."

They continued on in a stony silence until they reached a flight of stairs.

"We must hurry. You can hear the fighting." Cassandra urged, squeezing past him on the stairs to rush ahead.

"Who's fighting?" He called after her, keeping pace easily.

"You will see soon enough."

They reached the top and leapt down from a small stone ledge, the bridge once there buried under fade stone and broken carts set aflame. Below, soldiers fought, as well as a dwarf with a crossbow and surprisingly, an Elven mage.

Andreas cast a fireball immediately at a demon that went to attack a soldier's back as they engaged another demon. As the demon turned it's attention to him, Cassandra rushed up to meet it. He continued to cast spells until the last one fell.

"Quickly!" the Elven Mage cried, grabbing his hand with the mark on it and dragging him forward. The Elven mage stopped before the rift and thrust Andreas' hand at it.

A blinding light erupted from his mark and struck the rift in the middle. Andreas could feel an uncomfortable tugging feeling from the center of his hand. Not liking the uncomfortable feeling, he clenched his hand and ripped it out of the Elven mage's grasp.

To his surprise, the rift closed with the motion.

"How did you do that?" Andreas asked, though he meant more of, how did you know?

"I did nothing. The credit is all yours." The Elven mage answered.

"At least this thing is good for something." Andreas muttered, staring at the green glow still showing through his clenched fist.

"Whatever magic opened the breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized that the mark might be able to close the rifts that had opened in the breach's wake- and it seems I was correct." the Elven mage responded.

"I hate this guy." Pride growled in his head. "He feels all wrong. Magic is all wrong. Everything about him is wrong."

"Which means it could also close the breach." Cassandra seemed happy at the news.

"Possibly." the Elven mage answered. He turned his attention back to Andreas, eyes quickly moving over him before saying, "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

"Good to know! And here I thought we would be ass-deep in demons forever." the dwarf quipped. He approached the trio. "Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tag-along." He said the last while throwing a wink at Cassandra which seemed to infuriate her.

"Nice to meet you Varric." Andreas said, honestly feeling like the dwarf was the only one he can trust. The guy seemed more transparent than the others, at least.

"I am Solas, if there are to be introductions." The Elven mage interrupted. "I am pleased to see you still live."

"He means, I kept that mark from killing you while you slept." Varric joked.

Then my thanks for any part you played in that." Andreas answered truthfully.

"Thank me if we manage to close the breach without killing you in the process." Solas answered before turning to Cassandra. "You should know that though your prisoner is a mage, I find it hard to believe he had enough power, or any mage could have enough power to do this."

"Understood." Cassandra said coolly, but Andreas wondered if she was agreeing or dismissing the Elf's words.

"Well, lets get underway." Varric cheered, sensing the mood drop it seems.

"Absolutely not!" Cassandra objected, stepping in front of the dwarf. "Your help is appreciated Varric but-"

"Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?" Varric cut her off. "Your soldiers are not in control anymore. You need me." His grin was the type you might give someone if you were a child begging for a cookie...or convincing them you are innocent of something you truly did do.

More so though, Andreas found himself staring at Cassandra. A Seeker. He felt his lip curl again, and even Pride was snarling within him.

"Keep calm." Solas whispered.

Andreas turned his gaze to him, ignoring the bickering dwarf and human.

"I beg your pardon?" Andreas asked the other mage.

"Keep control. A way to close the breach or not, do you think they would suffer you to live if they knew?" Solas asked, his eyebrow quirking.

"And how do you?" Andreas growled lowly, turning his full attention to the Elf.

"I have seen, and know, the signs." Solas answered, before stepping around him to follow the Seeker who climbed over a wooden railing.

"This way, we must go down the bank to proceed forward!" Cassandra called, finally settling on ignoring Varric.

"Just a moment." Andreas grinned while stripping the two bodies within their sight. He could feel the Seekers ire and he found himself enjoying it immensely.

"Happy to have another magic user in the party, Chuckles?" Varric asked of Solas.

Andreas felt the corner of his mouth curl just a bit to see the Elves annoyed look.

"Let's just get to the forward camp quickly." Cassandra snapped.

As Andreas stepped up next to the trio waiting on him, Varric looked up at him and said, "Bianca's excited!"

Andreas gave the dwarf a confused look but followed. They faced more demons and shades as they moved along, but he quickly found that 'Bianca' was useful. He could give a rat's ass what the dwarf chose to call his crossbow. The thing was useful and seemed much faster than a standard archer.

Once they reached the forward camp, he was 'introduced' to Chancellor Roderick.

"As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution!" The Chancellor had demanded.

Before Andreas could even sneer, Cassandra answered, "You? Order me? You are a glorified clerk! A bureaucrat!"

"And you are a thug, but a thug that supposedly serves the chantry!" Roderick snapped.

"We serve the Most Holy, as you well know." Leliana cut in before Cassandra could answer.

"Justinia is dead!" Roderick snapped. "We must elect a replacement and obey her orders on the matter."

"So nobody is in charge here?" Andreas asked in amusement.

"You killed everyone in charge!" Roderick barked. Seeing his anger and blustering was seemingly getting him nowhere, the Chancellor changed tactics. "Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless."

Voice full of conviction, Cassandra answered, "We can stop this before its too late."

"How? You won't survive long enough to reach the temple, even with all your soldiers." Roderick responded.

"We do a massive charge to get to the temple, its the quickest route." Cassandra answered.

"But its not the safest." Leliana interjected. "Our forces can charge while we can take the mountain path."

"We lost contact with an entire squad on that path. Its too risky." Cassandra dismissed the other woman's suggestion immediately.

"Listen to me now!" Roderick cut in. "Abandon this now before more lives are lost."

The breach pulsed again, and Andreas hissed through his teeth, shaking his hand to remove the pain.

"How do you think we should proceed?" Cassandra asked.

"First you take me prisoner? He demands me executed! And you are asking me what I think!?" Andreas snapped.

"You have the mark." Solas reminded him.

"I say he gets the pick because he is the tallest." Varric joked.

"Since we cannot decide on our own." Cassandra told him, glaring at Varric.

"Gonna be countless demons no matter what. I say we just go with the soldiers. Less work to do to get to the same goal." Pride whispered.

"Charge with the soldiers. I won't survive long enough for your trial. Whatever we do, we do it now. It ends here." Andreas murmured.

"Gather everyone left within the valley Leliana. Everyone." Cassandra told the other woman.

"On your head be the consequences Seeker." Roderick hissed as they passed him.

"I'd throw that guy off the bridge for free." Andreas muttered as they walked past the Chancellor's tent fully.

"Probably float down with all those skirts on anyways." Varric joked.

"Ugh." Cassandra's tone sounded absolutely disgusted.

As they started the climb up the mountain side, they were forced to make trails for themselves, many of the existing ones destroyed, on fire, or bridges gone. Andreas took the lead, allowing his more massive weight to make better foot holes for the others to follow in the near calf deep, and sometimes knee deep, snow.

More than once he found himself reaching back to steady one of the three as they got to steeper and slicker parts of the mountain.

"Look at the Elves footprints."

Andreas looked back at Solas, pacing along a ledge and looking down over the mountain they had scaled. But the snow beneath him, and that he had trekked was undisturbed.

Andreas found himself looking to see if Varric or Cassandra noticed, but both were busy looking up at the mountain and discussing something.

"We need to keep moving!" Cassandra interrupted before Andreas could focus on the Elf again.

The closer they got to the top, the more bodies seemed to pile up. Andreas ignored them, the mark on his palm throbbing with seemingly the nearness of the breach. An unspoken urgency seemed to have taken a hold of him and he began to rush up the mountain, the other three following.

"So, got any siblings?" Varric said, trying to fill the silence.

"Four of them. Three brothers and a sister." Andreas answered, eyes focused still on the slowly approaching mountain top.

"They still in the Free Marches?" the Dwarf asked now.

"I don't know." Andreas lied. "I've been in the circle since I was eight. It's not like they wrote letters to the dirty mage in the family line." That much was true at least. His little sister, Andriana's magic had manifested at six when she had accidentally caught her own dress on fire. His parents summoned the local Templars from the chantry immediately to take her away. His father had even told him that one day, he would have to do this very job. As the youngest of the four sons, he would be given to the Chantry. Only, it hadn't happened that way. As his younger sister had cried and begged to be allowed to stay, he had become so angry. He had struck the Templar not holding his sister with a bolt of wild energy.

In the end, the pair of them were taken together. They had only heard once from their parents. Andreas had just passed his harrowing when his parents had shown up. He thought they might have come to apologize, maybe congratulate him on his passing of his harrowing. However, they had summoned his sister as well and asked that they sign documents giving up their rights to their familial name.

To their parents, he and Adriana were only dirty little secrets that needed to be covered up.

While his sister had wept at the words his parents continued to drone out about the family name, long history, no mages in over two hundred years among other things, Andreas had picked up the documents. Staring his parents dead in the eyes, he set the papers alight in his very hands.

The Templar in the room did nothing, even when his parents demanded he do something.

"I'm sorry Serah, but what would you have me do? We cannot force them to sign the papers. I believe you have your answer."

"We have arrived." Cassandra's words shook Andreas out of the memories as he gazed up at the breach, and crumbling walls that separated them from seeing what lay beyond.

As they climbed the few steps to an open area, soldiers milled around. Most were filthy and working on covering the dead, some were injured themselves and waiting for a healer or someone with some sort of training to assist them. Only a few sat sharpening blades, seemingly waiting for something.

As they passed through the small camp, Andreas could hear the sounds of clashing swords and demon screeches. As they climbed another set of steps, a battle was raging. Demons poured out of a rift that soldiers below struggled to slay and contain.

Andreas leapt down from the platform he stood upon and charged closer to the battle, lashing out at a demon that felled a soldier with a wound to the young man's leg.

"Quickly! We must close it!" Solas shouted as he froze another demon solid.

As they slayed the demons around them, the rift shifted.

"More are going to come through!" Solas shouted to the soldiers as they regrouped.

As more poured out, Andreas cast an arcane bolt at a terror that attempted to open a small rift of it's own to attack some unsuspecting victim from below. Cassandra fought back to back with a man wearing a lion's mane upon his shoulders and holding a shield of his own. Varric stayed back from the group, firing well placed bolts into any demons that tried to get a jump on anyone.

At last, with an ear piercing screech the last terror demon was slain and Andreas opened his palm and allowed the mark to make contact with the rift. As that uncomfortable feeling began to build again, he did as before. Closed his fist and ripped his arm back away from the rift. Again, the rift was closed.

"Sealed, as before. You are becoming quite proficient at this." Solas told him as he joined him at his left side.

"Well let's hope it works on the big one." Varric joked, coming up on his right.

"You managed to close the rift. Well done Lady Cassandra." The man with the lion's mane said with a brief dip of his head.

"Don't thank me, Commander. This was the prisoner's doing." Cassandra corrected the man.

The Commander turned his gaze to Andreas, who felt like curling his lip again. "I hope they're right about you."

"Don't we all?" Andreas mused instead, lips curling anyways in a sarcastic smirk.

"We'll see soon enough won't we." The Commander dismissed him with that and turned back to Cassandra. "The way to the temple should be clear."

Cassandra nodded to the man and motioned for the rest of their little party to follow her forward. They approached another drop that Andreas took with ease. Cassandra and Solas followed, and Varric allowed himself to be assisted by Andreas with the near seven foot drop.

"That is where our soldiers found you." Cassandra motioned as they neared an opening that led to the heart of what remained of the temple.

Bodies lay twisted, burned, in poses of pain and suffering that Andreas took in stride. He had long since become desensitized to seeing burned bodies with the continuous battles between the mages and Templars. The smell, however, was something he wished he could learn to tolerate.

As they rounded the corner, a massive rift lay before them, though they all seemed to cast their gaze up at the breach.

"The breach is a long way up." Varric muttered beside him.

Behind them, they heard Leliana exclaim, "You're here! Thank the Maker!"

"Leliana, have your men take up positions around the temple." Cassandra told the other woman. As the red headed woman nodded and moved to give orders, the Seeker turned her attention to Andreas. "This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"

"I'm assuming you have a plan to get me up there?" He asked, motioning with his chin toward the breach.

"No, this rift is the first and it is the key." Solas interjected. "Seal it, and perhaps we seal the breach."

Andreas took a deep breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth. "Okay, let's do this. Just close the very big rift."

"Then let's find a way down. And be careful." Cassandra said, turning to look around.

Andreas passed the Seeker, looking for a way down to get closer to the rift. He saw several he could have easily taken with his height, but might be more difficult to those in armor, or shorter heights.

"Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice." A voice boomed out.

"What are we hearing?" Cassandra asked, looking for the source.

"At a guess, the person who created the breach." Solas answered.

"The veil was very thin here, even before all this happened." Andreas answered truthfully.

"Its bleeding into our world with memories of what happened." Solas said in agreement.

As they turned and headed left at the end of their current path, red glowing stones began to jut up out of the ground and walls.

"You know this stuff is red lyrium, Seeker?" Varric asked.

"I see it, Varric." Cassandra responded tersely.

"It's evil. Whatever you do, don't touch it!" Varric warned them.

"Magic could have drawn on the stone beneath the temple and corrupted it?" Solas suggested.

"I've never heard of such a thing before." Andreas answered. "It would be interesting to know more."

"It would indeed. Something to study, for sure." Solas agreed.

At last, they found a spot lower to get down from. Andreas took the step off the ledge and landed in a three point in time to see the veil bleed before their very eyes. Even to the non mages around.

As the vision of the Divine suspended in the air, a shadowy figure stood before her, speaking.

"What's going on here?"

They watched as Andreas appeared in the vision before the shadowy figure pointed a finger at him and snarled, "Slay the intruder!"

"Run while you can! Warn them!" The Divine cried at him, and then the vision broke.

"You were there!" Cassandra snarled, grabbing his arm and ripping him around to face her. "Who attacked! Is the Divine dead? Is this vision true!?"

"I. Don't. Know." Andreas snarled, getting back into her face. "I don't remember anything of the conclave itself except arriving, and then the memory of those things chasing me. The briefest glimpse of a woman reaching out to me... And then waking up in chains."

"This rift is closed." Solas told them, motioning toward the rift and bringing their attention back to the matter at hand. "But I believe it is temporary and can be opened with the mark. However that likely means drawing attention from the other side."

"That means demons!" Cassandra yelled out to the assembled soldiers. "Stand ready!"

Andreas again let himself breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth. He wanted nothing more than to punch the Seeker right in her face, but if there was something nice he could say about his parents, it was that they raised him better than that.

He turned his attention back to the rift and looked down at the mark. He could feel that same pulling feeling, faintly. Lifting his palm to the rift, the connection was made and the rift tore itself open. With it, however, came a Pride demon.

"That thing is huge!" Varric cried as he began to fire bolts into it.

"Its drawing it's energy from the rift itself!" Solas yelled. "Use the mark and try and disrupt the rift!"

Andreas turned away from the demon and allowed the connection to form again. It didn't close the rift, but it did somehow disrupt it. He watched as the massive Pride demon crashed to a knee, unsteady at the sudden disconnect it had received.

"Attack!" Came the war cry as soldiers on foot ran up to slash at the demon. Archers on the upper levels chose their shots carefully, having a limited number of arrows to unleash on the massive demon.

The Pride demon roared as one of the archers landed a shot in one of its many eyes.

"That had to hurt." the Pride demon in Andreas' head chuckled. "But you should keep an eye on that rift."

Andreas cursed as the rift seemed to solidify itself again, and the Pride demon made it's way back to its feet to renew it's attack.

Andreas again let the mark make the connection, but as he disrupted this time, more demons came through and attacked him directly. He pushed one back with his staff before turning to the other and casting a fireball directly into it's face.

Leliana, noticing his attackers, turned her arrows to the second demon that tried to attack him again.

Together they managed to dispatch the demons. The red headed woman gave him a nod and turned her attention back to the Pride Demon trying to go after some of the archers.

Again and again, Andreas disrupted the rift. Twice more did demons come through with a seeming determination to take him out. Finally though, finally, he went to disrupt the rift again but felt the change. He could close it!

He focused all his attention into this, pushing his hand higher as his whole body felt like it was on fire. He cried out pushing more power into the mark, his own magic to try and seal it. All he had, to close the thing, and maybe finally, his innocence would be 'proven' within his death.

He didn't rip his hand away though as much as he felt himself thrown back and away from the rift. He landed on his back several yards away, still looking at the rift. It was sealed, but not closed. However, he had done something. He could feel it, but he could also feel a slow ebbing in his body and his vision became fuzzy around the edges.

Above him, Solas' face swam into view, a look of true distress on the Elven mage's face.

Andreas felt his lips moving as he tried to tell Solas to warn his sister away. But as people talked over him, their voices became more distant until he found himself in total darkness. He fell unconscious moments later.