My Love

by Sabrina Zbasnik

  "Three archers, one soldier, and a mage."

  "There's another mage, that one's hiding by the fence trying to coo the others over." Andrea shook her head then slipped into a Tevinter accent, "Oh, please Inquisition soldiers, I am one of your own who's talking real funny because I'm new and have a terrible cold cough cough. Won't you come and play with me?" She spat at the ground, "Twat."

  "Do you think you can get to the roof?" Lana asked.

  "Sure, if you give a minute to find the ladder. Got a plan, do ya?"

  "Yep," she bobbed her head. Maker, if Cullen ever found out she'd never hear the end of it. "I'm going to be the bait."

  The lieutenant skittered off into the dark, leaving Lana alone with the hope that the woman would make good on her promise. She seemed prepared to fight the Venatori to the death if it came to it, but Lana counted on her fingers the dozens of ways her plan could fail. In the distance, the splat of something smacking into the wall echoed through the dark room. The lieutenant was either climbing the ladder or building a stack of bodies to get to the roof. Rising to her feet, Lana tested the balance of the staff again. She'd only get one, maybe two seconds before they'd all come at her. Dipping into the fade, she threaded the beginning of a spell along the staff's core. It wasn't the wisest of moves as it could reset an entire enchantment leaving the staff drained and little better than a piece of wood. But she'd taken to storing spells in her own for years, aware of how far she could push the limits of magic before it snapped back. Still, she yanked her fingers away before putting the last touches upon it. Given how lightweight the wood felt, it seemed unwise to trust the staff to contain any magic that powerful.

  Smoothing down her skirts that were now wrinkled beyond repair, Lana placed her hand on the door and shoved it open with all the certainty of a drunk noble wandering through someone else's home. Both Venatori snapped up at her intrusion, but they didn't run right for her.

  "This area is off limits," the sword one shouted.

  "Oh, sorry. I seem to be terribly lost and..." Lana's eyes drifted down towards the soldiers tied up against the statue's base, "wandered into a side party, I see."

  The mage hissed something in such a thick accent Lana couldn't translate it. But judging by the way his eyes lit up, she could about guess it amounted to 'kill the intruder.' They were never very creative. "No, she might be connected to the duchess," the one with the sword said.

  Lana lifted up her hands, holding the staff by a barest grip and stepped backwards, "I'll just be going now." Damn it, she needed to stall for more time. The archers should have hit the roof by now. Lana didn't glance back at them, but she could feel the pairs of eyes digging into her back.

  "Hold a moment," a new voice oozed around the corner. This Venatori towered above the other two, her blonde hair knotted around her neck like a snake. She sized up the tiny woman and sneered, "Why are you carrying a staff?"

  "Is that what this is?" Lana yanked the staff towards her face, and eyed it up. "I stumbled across it on the ground and thought this would make a lovely decoration for my..." Shit, what idiotic thing do the nobility decorate to waste space, "stick room."

  "A likely story," the woman sneered. Her fist crackled with fire. At least, Andrea got that one right. She lifted it high to aim for Lana, when a man screamed above them all. His body slammed into the roof and slid bumping along the tiles until it splattered against the stone tiles beside the Tevinter's feet. "Someone is above us!"

  Show time. As the two mages aimed for Andrea, Lana yanked out her half spun spell and wrapped it together with the rest. Before they could even break into the fade, she smashed the first mage and the swordsman with a blast of ice powerful enough to freeze golems. Most of the force broke against the mage, dousing his flames instantly. Enough scattered along the side to freeze the man's sword. Redoubling her attack, Lana threw ice shards at it, shattering the sword. Metal splinters erupted from the hilt, flying through the air. Three dug into the frozen man's face, the last impaling his eye.

  "Kaffas!" the female mage cursed. She raised up her fist and tossed a fireball at Lana. The first rolled off her barrier, but she felt the heat of the second light up her cheeks. She hadn't fully frozen the other two, but if she didn't raise up her barrier anew, the next fireball would blister her skin. Glaring at the mage, Lana rolled her shoulder around dragging the staff with and directed an ice bolt directly at the Tevinter's hands. The woman dashed out of the way, missing the brunt, but Lana's attack extinguished her fireball sending flame skittering across the cobbles. Another body screamed from on top of the roof. Two archers down, one more to go. Lana had to hold up her end of the bargain.

  Dipping deeper into the fade, she cut off her ice and smashed down upon the frozen men. The swordsman crashed to the ground, broken beyond belief, while the mage bounced back from the fade fist. Lana flipped her staff around and aimed at the female mage protecting him. She fired off two bolts, but the woman responded in kind with her fire. The first seared along the ivy behind Lana but the second caught against her skirts. Smoke burned up her nose and strangled her lungs while heat blistered up her legs. Rather than panic, Lana turned her staff down at her feet and fired. The ice wiped away the fire, leaving charred edges along the silk of her borrowed dress.

  "Oh, now you're dead," Lana hissed. The woman chuckled, unimpressed by her rather wimpy display.

  "Yes, I am certain one little mage will defeat the Venatori."

  "I don't have to kill the Venatori." Lana tugged upon that darkness inside everyone, the edge she'd only touch when backed into a corner. It split open her soul and poured forth the magic she needed, the one that could easily tip her another way. "I only have to kill you." The woman re-enforced her barrier against magical attacks, but Lana didn't toss ice her way. Instead, she dashed at the woman, her head bent downward to redirect the blow to her shoulders.

  "By all the..." was as far as the Venatori got before Lana's momentum plowed her directly into the fence behind. The Tevinter's head knocked against the wrought iron knocking free her own spell. Clinging to the woman's bent shoulders, Lana poured every ounce of death hex into her body. Lana slipped back from her victim and watched. At first the Venatori only shook her head, trying to dislodge the song buzzing through her thoughts, but then the pain increased, her panicked heart beating faster and faster as it struggled against the impending doom shredding apart every fiber of her body. The woman tossed her head back and screamed. Her fingers reached into the fade, trying to dispel what Lana burned into her veins, but every attempt was met by another throb of pain.

  Lana weighed the staff in her hands, but the damn thing was so light. Reaching along the ground, she picked up one of the sword's shards glittering in the moonlight like puddles. The woman roiled upon her knees, trying to claw her hair out to stop the pain. Lana knocked her head back, exposing her throat. "Sorry," she said and slit the jagged edge across it. The metal snagged upon her larynx, sticking in place, but blood gushed from her veins blanketing the marble tiles that portrayed Andraste's betrayal.

  Stepping back from the mage bleeding out, Lana breathed to steady herself. Her wound twitched below her corset, the pain throbbing through her dry throat. She was going to need a long bath after this night. A sound broke through the night and Lana flipped around. The no longer frozen mage stood behind her. His arms were extended above his head, about to bring his staff across Lana's skull. She tried to dodge out of the way, when both his arms fell, the staff tumbling to the ground. He plummeted to the ground and clattered to his side, an arrow embedded in his back.

  "Hey," Andrea called from the roof. She tossed aside the stolen bow and inched closer, "I see you got yours."

  "And you got yours," Lana called back waving.

  "'Course I did," she scoffed. "Check on my people while I try to find a way off this damn thing."

  Lana saluted the woman who already vanished from sight. Using the same edge she had to cut the Venatori's throat, Lana broke the soldier's bonds and he
lped them up. Thanks were passed around like candy, each soldier massaging their arms and working out the cricks in their neck. No one spoke a word against her magic, though maybe they were becoming used to fighting beside a mage. Strange times.

  As Andrea skidded around the corner, she slapped her hand to her chest, "Look at you all, lazing about. We've got a dance to infiltrate." The soldiers looked ashamed while they dug out their weapons and slotted them back into place.

  Lana wiped sweat off her forehead and leaned against the flames of Andraste. Her own skirts were in quite a state, the sides burned so high a slit came up to her thigh. Josephine was going to kill her.

  "If you're done being captured," the lieutenant continued, "we need to be finding the Commander. Hop to it!" The soldiers saluted their brash leader, then fanned out towards the doorway.

  Lana rose off her lean and gripped tighter to the staff. Something told her whatever was about to happen in the ballroom wouldn't afford her an easy evening. "It never ends," she said to Andrea.

  The woman laughed, "Of course not. We're trying to save the world here."

  Lana entered the ballroom at the back of the press crowded around Celene. The Empress towered above her subjects scattered around her in various states of adoration. She glowed from the moonlight's ray spotlighting her sapphire gown, more than likely a specific choice from the Empress. Rising to her tiptoes, Lana tried to find anyone of the Inquisition hiding amongst the throngs. She spotted Andrea and her group emerging through the side door, each one armed for a battle that had yet to appear. Somehow they became separated dashing down the maze of corridors, putting Lana an even further distance away until she doubled back.

  A flash of red flitted through the crowds and then the Inquisitor's voice rang out above Celene's. "Stop Floriene! She means to kill the Empress!" Pandemonium struck. Lana lost sight of Celene and the Duchess as smoke bombs deployed across the entire ballroom. Nondescript guests yanked off their dancing gowns to reveal harlequin outfits hidden below. The plumes of smoke hung in the air stinging her eyes and trying to claw down her throat, but Lana wiped it away with a flick of her wrist. Through it all echoed screams from guests terrified of the smoke or the daggers slipping into kidneys. She had to get to the Empress, see what she could do to help or defend. Tipping her shoulder down, the little mage barreled through the crowd like she was a rampaging druffalo. Maker, she wished Hawke was here. Her cousin could pick her up on her shoulders or grab one of the clowns to use as a battering ram. Panicking orlesians shrieked nonsense in the first tongue they could think of all around her. The cacophony rattled her brain rendering any attempts to hear orders mute. Some grabbed onto Lana, begging her to solve the problem, others tried to knock her away as if she was another harlequin stabbing indiscriminately to create chaos.

  She peeled off a set of fingers, only to whip around towards a harlequin driving her daggers through a soldier's thigh. Lana snapped ice at the woman's hands, sending the first dagger skittering through the air, but she held tight to the other and pirouetted in the air towards at the mage. That disturbing mask betrayed no emotion as the harlequin passed her blade from hand to hand trying to intimidate Lana. She drew it back, ready to strike, when a sword slammed into her ribs, the point prodding out of the skin tight suit.

  Andrea yanked it back and kicked the harlequin's body to the floor. "Ugh, who invited this lot?"

  "I need to get to Celene!" Lana gestured at the stampeding nobles funneling them away from her endpoint.

  "Got it." The lieutenant turned back to her soldiers, "Gonna need a five-tenner. You up for some running?"

  Lana kicked both her shoes off and nodded. The only good thing about the skirts being burned, at least she didn't have to pick them up anymore.

  "All right, let 'er go!" Andrea shouted dropping her arm.

  Soldiers shot a pair of flares into the air. The explosion did little more than char the paintings on the ceiling, but they drew every single person's attention for a few moments. Lana ran past the horde paused in the attack leaving just enough room for the little mage to slip by. Her staff whacked into arms, legs, heads, any body part in the way, but she didn't have time to apologize. Rounding past an older woman with a dress wide enough to act as the lock on a dam, she spotted the Inquisitor chasing after the Duchess through the balcony gardens. He had his companions on his heels, all of them prepared for battle.

  His final fleeing message echoed above the mass hysteria, "Cullen, guard the Empress!"

  Dressed only in that red frippery, the commander faced three harlequins rounding upon Celene. The Empress was wise enough to fall back behind him, but he needed protection and fast. The first harlequin attacked boldly, aiming for his unshielded arm, but the commander blocked it with ease. Daggers rarely defeated a sword unless pressed for space, and Cullen had plenty if he kept his feet moving. The problem was the other harlequin notching her bow.

  Lana didn't pause in her running as she threaded together the spell. The edges were wonky, leaving a few gaps in the final product, but it didn't need to be perfect. It needed to work, and she needed to be close enough to cast it. She leapt over what almost looked like Whitley cowered in a ball on the floor just as the archer released her arrow. Cullen turned from the harlequin's blades to spot the arrow aimed for Celene. He threw himself in the way but the arrow stuck in mid-air, straight into Lana's barrier. She'd made it, barely. Another inch and it wouldn't have worked. Cullen turned to face her and nodded his head in thanks. She responded back the same, grateful to have not wasted any time.

  The harlequin only tipped her masked head and released a rain of arrows upon the barrier. Lana dipped deep into her pools, pouring all she could into it while the damn clown tried to whittle her down by pieces. Just try it, she sneered throwing both hands at her barrier expanding outward from Celene and Cullen.I've got...

  "Ah!" a dagger slit across Lana's arm and embedded into the banister. Growling in pain, she followed the path to the third harlequin who drew back another to finish off the exposed mage. Keeping her focus on the barrier, Lana snatched up the buried dagger. The blade was warm almost to the point of fire in her fingers from its trip through the air. Tipping it behind her head, she threw it back at the woman. Sweet Andraste! The dagger actually stuck deep in the harlequin's shoulder, scattering her other throwing knives.

  "Maker, how did you...?" Cullen asked, his eyes wide.

  "Total luck," Lana admitted. Another arrow stuck into the barrier, this one from across the room. Shit! "More on the other side, Cullen!"

  "I see them!" he shouted back. Grabbing onto the acrobatic harlequin with his free arm, he pulled her close while also driving his sword in. Without any time to spare, he kicked the clown away to free his blade. "Remain here," he ordered to Celene and then Cullen exited from Lana's barrier. The commander waved at his remaining people to finish off the harlequins, orders and numbers flying through the air. But it was easier said than done. Andrea rallied her people towards the pair taking aim at the barrier containing Celene, but the party guests managed to clog up the staircase and landing. People screamed, running for any exit they could find, giving ample room for the two archers to twist their aim from the Empress to the mage protecting her.

  "I'm getting real tired of sighting down the wrong end of an arrow!" Lana screamed. Her rage drew forth what remaining mana she had as she heaved ice across the void of the ballroom. It lanced in the air, freezing one arrow in place against the bow's string. Freezing cold to the point of burning, the harlequin chucked her now useless bow at the ground where the wood snapped. The other released too early to freeze in place, but Lana's spell was enough to throw the arrow off course where it stuck into the shoe on the chandelier. Both shoe and arrow tumbled to the ballroom floor.

  Lana's shoulders sagged as she watched the harlequin notch another arrow. There was nothing left in her pool, no other spells to throw, and if she turned from the barrier Celene was dead. Lana faced down the inevitable, glaring into the eternal abys
s always waiting for her. The harlequin twisted her head in comical joy and launched the arrow. Her aim was true, the arrow honing right for Lana's heart. She tried to dodge out of the way, but there was no time. It was going to strike her no matter what. Lana braced herself for the pain when a shield of fire erupted from the ground, flame consuming the arrow.

  "What the...?" Lana flipped around and spotted Morrigan snarling at the clowns, her own hands extended in rage.

  She lifted a lone eyebrow at Lana and said, "I have Celene protected. Go. Finish them."

  Lana yanked off her barrier, but another more powerful one remained in place. Mana no longer directed into protecting the Empress flooded her system. She twisted her fingers and cracked her neck as the power danced through her parted hands. Lana drew forth every ounce of ice in her system and pointed it at the ceiling. The clown tipped her head at the mage filling the roof with an endless stream of ice, no doubt confused by the tactic. She drew her bow back, prepared to end the troublesome mage. As the harlequin readied her finger to fire once more upon her, Lana cracked her ice spike in half. The massive spear slipped from its precarious perch and raced through the air. The harlequin looked up just as the spear shattered into her skull, the force cracking through every bone and pulverizing her body to goo.

  So much for... Another dagger whizzed through the air, this one clunking into the banister and skittering to the ballroom floor. Lana whipped her head back at the harlequin chucking knives like confetti. Beside that one, the second continued to fire a never ending supply of arrows, as if that next would finally pierce through Morrigan's barrier. Lana gripped tighter to her staff and stomped towards the dagger thrower. The harlequin hopped onto the balls of her feet, dancing back and forth while the tiny mage bared down upon her. Extending her proper daggers, the clown swung first, leaping into the air. Lana threw her hand up, the force of the fade catching the harlequin and hurling her towards the dance floor below.