Healing the Dark - Dragon Age Inquisition Fanfic

Holli sat beside the bonfire, basking in its warmth. With her whole body weak and shaky, Bull had carried her on his back down the mountain. She hated feeling so weak and for it to be on display like that, but she'd really been incapable of taking more than a few steps at a time without a rest. 

She was feeling a bit better now, but still tired and drained. Vivienne had been kind enough to bring her something to eat and drink. And all evening people had been patting her on the back, thanking her, blessing her. It felt a little undeserved. She wouldn't have been able to do it without the Templars. And she'd had little hand in getting this far in the first place. Cassandra had led them, with valuable input from Cullen, Josephine, and Leliana. 

The air about the village was jubilant. There was music, and dancing, and booze being freely poured. Since landing in this world, it was the happiest she had seen anyone. Even at Vivienne's little party or whatever it had been when they'd met her. There it had seemed like people were just putting on an act. 

Holli looked beside her to see Cassandra taking a seat. She offered Holli a small smile.

"Solas confirms the heavens are scarred but calm. The Breach is sealed. We've reports of lingering rifts, and many questions remain, but this was a victory." She gave Holli a meaningful look. "Word of your heroism has spread."

Holli scoffed. "I hardly did anything. And if it hadn't been me, it probably would have just been someone else. Maybe you would have lucked out and gotten someone useful."

"It wasn't someone else. It was you. It was you people rallied around."

"It was the Herald of Andraste people rallied around. Again, could have been anyone."

"We needed you, and you came through. We have yet to discover how the Breach came to be, and though we do not think you responsible, someone brought you into this somehow and for some reason. We feel it best to keep you close—safe—until we have answers."

Holli nodded, a little relieved they weren't just going to turf her out now that she'd closed the sky. But there were still rifts, apparently; they'd need her to close them. 

"Strange days," Cassandra mused. "And more to come."

She had barely finished the sentence before the sound of a bell rang out across the village. They both stood up, looking to see what was going on. Soldiers were running, likely having been trained on what to do if that alarm sounded. 

"Forces approaching! To arms!" They heard Cullen's voice above the din.

People started scattering in a panic.

"Stay close to me," Cassandra said, drawing her sword. "We must get to the gates."

Holli followed Cassandra through the crowd of fleeing people, running into Cole and Solas along the way, who joined them. 

"They're afraid. Something's coming," Cole said, no real urgency to his tone.

"This bodes poorly," Solas added.

When they got to the gates, Cullen was there with Leliana, Josephine, and some of the others, as well as a portion of Inquisition soldiers and Templars.

"Cullen?" Cassandra asked.

"One watchguard reporting. It's a massive force, the bulk over the mountain," he replied.

"Under what banner?" Josephine questioned.

"None."

"None?"

The gates suddenly arched inward, firelight shining through the cracks.

"If someone could open this, I'd appreciate it!" A voice sounded from the other side, urgent, a little worried.

They opened the gates to find a man there, going by his staff—a mage. Around him were charred bodies. That must have been the source of the firelight. The man was crouched on the ground, breathing heavily from the exertion. Holli followed behind Cassandra and Cullen as they went out to meet him.

"Ah. I'm here to warn you. Fashionably late, I'm afraid," he said. 

He tried to stand up, stumbling a little; Cullen had to help steady him.

"Mite exhausted," he explained. "Don't mind me. I came to tell you what happened to the mages at Redcliffe. You're not going to like it. They are under the command of the Venatori, in service to something called the 'Elder One.'"

"This guy again?" Holli groaned. 

"You're familiar? Good. They were already marching on Haven. I risked my life to get here first."

"Awesome, now you'll get to die with us. Welcome aboard!" Holli greeted with false cheer.

"Oh, you're a delight," the man grinned.

"Haven is no fortress," Cullen said. "If we are to withstand this, we must control the battle."

"Holli, get up to the Chantry; stay safe," Cassandra commanded. 

Holli reluctantly nodded. She wanted to help; she just didn't know how. She started running back inside the village walls, hearing Cullen bark out orders and cringing when he added a 'for the Herald!' in his little pep talk. She ran to her cabin, grabbing her backpack from inside and shoving a few valuables inside that she really didn't want destroyed—her books, what was left of her lollies, and some clothes. Then she started for the Chantry. There were other people grabbing what they could, searching for friends or loved ones; it was a bit of a stampede. Holli tried to help where she could. 

Outside the walls, she heard the sound of an explosion and whirled around to take a look. 

"Holy fuck, is that a dragon!?" She breathed out.

"Herald!" 

Holli looked to the sound of the voice where Adan was waving her over. She wove her way through the fleeing people to meet him.

"I need help moving some of the wounded," he told her.

Holli nodded, following him back to the healer's hut. Having only recently learnt to heal, she'd yet to come here and try to patch everyone up. There were a half dozen people in various states of incapacity.

Holli came to the nearest, nearly slipping into him in her panic. "Where's your hurt?" She all but shouted the demand, inwardly cringing at her words. She was no good in a fucking crisis; she couldn't even get her words right.

He was too stunned to answer right away, having the Herald yelling in his face. 

"His leg," Adan said, helping one of the others to stand. "There are crutches in the corner."

Holli threw off his blanket; it was all bandaged up. Grabbing a pair of scissors from nearby, she cut it off.

"What are you doing?" Adan yelled. "You're meant to be helping."

"I am!" She yelled back, holding shaking hands over the wound.

Just like with Bull, she practically zapped the wound better, the man crying out in pain. But it quickly died as the hurt settled and he saw his completely healed leg.

"Maker's Breath," he breathed out. 

"No time," Holli told him. "Help or get to the Chantry."

Holli moved on to the next person; both his legs were gone. Shit, that might be a bit more difficult.

"Fuck, okay, let's take a crack at that," she muttered more to herself. 

She had no idea if she could manage this, but she wouldn't know until she tried. She rested her hands on his legs and started healing. He started screaming and thrashing. 

"Hold him down!" She ordered. 

"Lass, magic can't restore—"

He cut himself off when he saw the legs were starting to grow. "Sweet Maker."

He gestured for one of the others to help hold him in place and gave the man something to bite down on. Holli continued to heal him, new bone and flesh growing from the stumps. He was howling the entire time; the process was obviously a painful one. But it looked like he was trying to keep still as he watched his limbs regrow. The others wore equally shocked looks on their faces despite doing what needed to be done. 

"There, get to the Chantry," she told him when he had his legs back. 

They were staring at her, disbelief and awe. What? They knew mages could heal people. 

She clapped her hands loudly, snapping them from their daze. "Move!"

She moved along, healing those still there as quickly as she could. The healing process obviously caused them a lot of pain, but once that died down, they were all better and ready to go, if a little exhausted—either help or get to the Chantry. Thank fuck they all chose to help. 

"I didn't know you could heal," Adan said. 

"I just learnt the other day. I don't know how to do it without hurting them."

"I think that's the least of their worries, lass. Help me with these; no doubt we'll have more wounded, and you're going to run out of steam soon."

Weirdly enough, the healing didn't seem to have drained her all that much. Nowhere near as bad as closing the Breach. That had taken it out of her. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Outside the healer's hut, they could hear fighting, shouting... dying screams. She helped Adan store what healing poultices and supplies they could, then carried them up to the Chantry. Enemy forces had breached the walls; it wasn't safe. And she was weighed down with her backpack and the crate of healing supplies she was carrying.

She ran with Adan, trying to keep away from the fighting. When one of the Venatori saw them, no enemy of his own to face, he charged at them. In her panic, she felt her magic surge, and he just... exploded. Bits of him splattered across her and Adan. She looked with wide eyes to the man, trying to stutter out an apology, or an explanation, or something. She didn't know what.

"It was us or him. Keep moving," Adan told her.

They kept running, Inquisition soldiers doing what they could to defend them as they passed. At one point, she was almost struck by an arrow—would have been had Cassandra not been there, catching it on her shield. Holli shot her a grateful look and kept running. 

They made it to the Chantry, Holli trying to suppress the horror of actually killing someone. It was self-defence... She had to protect her and Adan so they could help the people in the Chantry. Which was full of people, non-combatants. There were plenty of injured from what she could see, plenty of fear and panic. Holli followed Adan towards the back, where he was talking about setting up a triage station. They set down the crates they carried to get started. 

A commotion at the front drew her attention, where she saw more soldiers running, Cullen shutting the doors behind them.

"I'll be back in a minute, Adan," she told him, heading up to the others to find out what was going on.

She recognised their newcomer helping a very injured Roderick to a seat.

"A brave man," he told her. "He stood against a Venatori."

"Stopped clocks," she muttered. 

The Chancellor had never grown on her. 

"Our position is not good," Holli heard Cullen telling the others. "There has been no communication, no demands. Only advance after advance."

"There was no bargaining with the mages, either. The Elder One takes what he wants."

"Who are you? Who is the Elder One exactly?" Holli asked.

"Dorian Pavus," he greeted, examining Roderick's wound. "The Elder One is more of a what than a who. And from what I gathered in Redcliffe, it marched all of this way to take your Herald."

They all looked at her; she felt her stomach sink. She shrugged off her backpack and handed it to Varric. 

"Fuck me..." she sighed out, turning towards the door.

"What are you doing?" Solas asked.

"I'd rather walk out under my own steam than be tossed out by a panicked mob," she told them, her eyes looking across at the people gathered, some of them clearly listening.

"Hold on, you'll do no such thing, and no one is tossing you out there," Cullen told her.

"Look, whatever he wants must have something to do with the mark on my hand. Maybe he knows how to remove it. Maybe once he has me, he'll leave Haven alone. Once everyone here is safe, mount a rescue mission or something."

"Those are some heavy maybes," Dorian pointed out. "He also might just want to kill you."

"That's also just a maybe," she jumped on that quickly, looking to the others. "He doesn't know."

"Look, we don't hand over little girls to evil entities," Blackwall said.

"I'm fifteen," she snapped. "Hardly a little girl."

"Enough!" There was a fair amount of exasperation in Cullen's tone. "This is not survivable now. The only choice left is how spitefully we end this. We can turn the last of the trebuchets to the mountains above us."

"We'd bury Haven," Cassandra said.

"Well, that's not acceptable. I didn't race here only to have you drop rocks on my head," Dorian said, stalking towards Cullen.

"Should we submit? Let him kill us? Or hope he'll spare us if we serve Holli up on a platter?"

"Dying is typically a last resort, not first! For a templar, you think like a blood mage."

"There is a path," Roderick interrupted, his voice raspy. "You wouldn't know it was there unless you'd made the summer pilgrimage. As I have. The people can escape. She must have shown me. Andraste must have shown me so I could... tell you."

"Would it work?" Cassandra asked Cullen.

"Possibly. If he shows us the path."

Holli sighed and reached out to Roderick, her hand on his bloodstained clothes. He cried out in pain, doubling over in his seat.

"What did you do?" Cassandra gasped.

"I fixed him. He's not gonna be much use dead," Holli replied. 

Roderick sat back up, looking at his injury through the tear in his robes. He wiped the blood away, looking wide-eyed at the vanished wound. Healing him was the one time she didn't feel bad about the pain that came along with it. 

"You healed him? Just like that?" Dorian asked, leaning down to examine the spot Roderick's wound had been.

"Why does everyone say it like that? I'm a quick learner."

"Mm, I think you're missing the point."

Roderick was just staring at her, making her uncomfortable. "What?"

"Thank you. You—you saved my life."

"Don't read too much into it," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. 

The man had wanted her dead and had called her a murderer. The only reason she had healed him was because what kind of doctor would she be if she denied someone care for being an arse? 

Now, she needed to focus on what to do next. Because there was no way she was letting people die for her. She couldn't live with that on her conscience. Every day her worry for these people grew as they walked into danger to protect her, all because of her hand. She had sealed the Breach now; the rest of the rifts could possibly close on their own, heal like Solas said the heavens would. She'd pretty much served her purpose here. The Elder One was here for her anyway. Besides, if she died, maybe she'd go home. Maybe he had brought her here and could send her back.

But they would never let her go. She was going to maybe do something a little on the stupid side.