Sisters of Tevinter

Pavus

      Jor frowned and tore the note into small white scraps, tucking them into the pouch at her belt. She lifted her gaze to the chapel up a long flight of stone stairs set into the distant cliff adjacent from the wind mill, its dark doors emblazoned with a golden sun. 

       "Anyone feeling particularly prayerful?" She started forward up the steps. 

        Cassandra frowned. "I do not like this." 

       Bull grinned. "I think it's just getting interesting."

      Jor quickstepped up the stairs to the chapel, pressing her hands to the heavy doors. They swung open easily on well oiled hinges, and Jor was met with a brilliant blast of emerald light. 

       "Oh, good, you're here," a shape, blurred by the scholar's dazzled eyes, began cheerfully. "Lend me a hand, would you?" 

       Cassandra rounded Jor easily with a fearsome war cry as she charged down the marble steps into the chapter and threw herself bodily into the chest of another smouldering rage demon made of magma. The room erupted in a blast of heat. 

        "Finally!"  Bull roared as he jumped into the fray, swinging his maul in a whirl wind of violent force. Jor's hand burst into that familiar, frost bitten pain. A young man with bronze skin and ebony hair planted his feet a little ahead of her, lifting his ivory staff in the air as ethereal shapes formed to snatch and gather over a ragged dreamer, weighing it down. 

          A familiar shriek shook the foundations of the chapel and Jor shoved the mage out of the way as reality folded in on itself, spitting out a leaping thorny Terror. 

           The mage stumbled, concentration broken and the Terror roared, its gaping maw sweeping the stone as it crouched and clawed for the scholar's legs. Jor leapt high, nimble and thrilled with adrenaline, twisting to grip the creature's pale horns and dangle from it skull, slamming her foot into the back of its neck and driving it to the stone. 

          Dirty red flame burst along the demon's face as the mage regained his focus and the creature shrieked, immobilized in blind agony. Jor yanked a dirk from her belt and drove it deep into the creature's head. It spasmed and let out a long, piercing scream before bursting into mist, leaving Jor to fall to the chapel floor in a clumsy roll. 

           Cassandra and Bull were back to back, fending off a rage demon and three ragged dreamers. A shade was felled instantly from where it hovered by the flickering rift that crackled in the center of the room of black marble by some invisible force. There was a whistling sound and a burst of shimmering orange powder as one of the dreamers folded, unconscious.

            The powder veered, rippling like smoke in slowed waves. Kaisen appeared, daggers in hand, moving as if through water, lifting her knee and driving it at a snail's pace into the second dreamer's gut. It clawed across her face, much faster, more prepared. Even Kaisen's fall was slow, light as a feather. 

             Bull swung his maul and shifted closer to the rift, his movements slowed more dramatically. He looked to be barely moving at all, as if frozen by green light. The rage demon, belching fire and magma surged forward as Cassandra struggled to yank her sword out from its chest.

               Jor, taking this in at a glance, sprang forward. Her legs suddenly seemed swept out from under her, she lost her balance and skidded across the stone at the feet of the rage demon. Her movement almost too fast to follow, blurred by unholy speed, she plunged her dirk deep into the churning magma at its base, her fingers burned and blistered and suddenly she was on the other side of the rift across the room. She slipped, dizzy. 

               Dazed, she lifted her hand to close the flickering seam in the air. Kaisen was suddenly beside her, the unconscious shade was moving as it had before she'd even thrown her powder. The wound on her face was closed, as if it had never been there at all. 

                The Crow drove her dagger into the shade's masked face. The bone visage shattered. Time slowed again, Jor's movements were sluggish as she willed the mark to connect to the tear in the Veil. The demons shrieked and roared, some slow, some instantaneous. The rift flexed and creaked, knitting itself back together in flickering threads of sickly emerald light. 

               It sealed with a snap, sending a blast of wind careening through the chapel and driving Jor to her knees as her heart seemed to jolt back to its regular rhythm. Cassandra dropped her sword with a snarl, clutching her gloved hand. The blade glowed red with fading heat. 

               "My. That was eventful. Frightful weather these rifts tend to bring, isn't it." The young man ran a hand through his hair, brushing off the front of his tunic. 

               Jor was panting, desperately tugging her gloves over her stinging hands. 

             "I have to thank you," the mage said with a smile, his moustache twitching with amusement. "It's only polite." He crossed the floor to the winded scholar and offered her his hand. 

              Jor took his hand and his grip was firm as he helped her up. "It's nothing."

            "Of course not. You're flushed, are you injured?" 

            "Blistered, but unharmed." She smiled slightly. "I assume you are the friend I was required to meet."

            "Yes! How clumsy of me. Dorian Pavus, formerly of House Pavus." The mage grinned, bowing slightly. "How do you do?"

         Formerly?  "All things considered? Pretty good." Jor returned the bow graciously. "And you?"

        "Oh, manners! How refreshing!"

          Jor laughed. "It is good to meet you, Sir Pavus. I am Jormungandr Trevelyan." 

        "What a name. Have you thought about starting a band?" 

          The scholar smothered a grin. "Not recently."

         Kaisen popped into existence to Dorian's left. "What the hell was all of that?" 

         The mage jumped slightly and turned to examine the rogue. "You must be the Crow." He grinned. "Love the coat." 

          Kaisen brightened, blushing. "Thank you!" 

          Bull rolled his shoulders, grimacing as he approached. "You didn't slow me down, did you? I break bones for that, mage boy."

          "I'm good, but not that good." Dorian sighed and leaned on his staff, fingertips resting on the heads of two intertwined ivory snakes. "You were kind enough to notice the effects of these rifts in Redcliffe."

            "We've never encountered magics like this," Cassandra said, scowling. 

            "You'll find things are a bit different under Alexius' supervision." 

             Jor folded her arms. "Tell me everything."