Chapter Text
How strange is it that after all of that
we are strangers, again.
It has to be a nightmare, or the Fade turned dark or something, because this cannot be happening.
She was fine, she thought, her magic making her hands tingle as her mana depleted - sweat was making her eyes sting, but she didn't even have to be able to see to cast spells, and she wanted to make them hurt. The Red Templars were monsters to Kataria, even if she knew the truth behind why they were these monstrosities - it didn't matter, not after everything she had seen up until then.
So many bodies were already there when they had arrived, screams of terror and agony melting into the snow of Emprise Du Lion, but more fell to the snow and disappeared, the weak hands of innocent miners clutching onto her boots as the Templar Knight ebbed red lyrium into their skin.
Kat blieves that was when she slipped.
The blood had mixed with the snow, the tug of desperate hands and slippery mush making her crash into the ground; the air shot from her lungs, a loud and painful gasp from her lips as snow sprinkled down into her eyes. She had wiped desperately at her face, hearing the cries of war, the pounding stomps and the clang of armor getting closer and closer. She couldn't see anyone, she couldn't see her friends anywhere and she remembered screaming for help when she was dragged away into that damp darkness, the way her skin burned beneath the vibrant, singing touch of lyrium.
Pain, that was what she remembers the most and the red, the blistering, blinding red everywhere, stabbing towards the sky, declaring victory.
She feels the energy, it surges through her and grows and it makes her twitch and jerk, the stone as hot as the sun against her back, singing her clothes and leaving nothing but embers and scraped skin. Their voices were warped and demonic, over her head, spinning around and making her dizzy, nauseous. She could hardly keep up, her head snapping back and forth, side to side, trying to focus on something but suddenly - there was nothing, but the huff of snow rolled by the wind, the rustle of the trees and faint footsteps searching through the path to her.
"Her! Her! I found her!"
Cole? Oh Cole, sweet Cole, she needed him now more than ever, his odd quirks that made her laugh, his understanding of her when no one else got it. He always knew how to make her forget.
"Sweet Andraste...what happened?" Dorian, that's right Dorian had been there for a minute, and then she had chased after the templar shadow that had been trying to slice at her ankles, down the path to the right, she had sworn she said something.
"Oh Boss... " Why did Bull sound so shocked? She didn't know what was wrong, she couldn't open her eyes to look, she was just so tired now, her mana spent.
"Sh-She's bad," Cole whispered, closer this time, his breath ruffling the loose threads on her collar. "She's really bad, I have to help her."
Yes, yes Cole he --
"No, no do not...do not do that yet, Cole." Why would Dorian protest?
"I-I need to help!"
"C'mon kid," Bull, Bull why wouldn't you let him help? "You get Kat, the kid and I will get the horses."
Dorian sighed and she remembered him nodding because she could open her eyes then, the snow didn't burn anymore, she...
"I don't feel anything, Dorian," she whispered as his arms wrapped around her and he lifted her up; his own fingers tightened around her when she clenched a fist into the front of his coat. "I can't feel...anything."