Sisters of Tevinter

Trebuchet

     "Is everyone here?" Jor laid her palms against the heavy stone doors. Outside were muffled roars, shouts, the crashing of collapsing buildings. 

       "Now." It was Solas' voice. Jor swiveled to face him as he emerged from the shadows of the hall. "You will have my aid."

        The scholar nodded, her jade eyes bright with rigid determination as she glanced over her companions, silently thanking each of them. And then she swung open the enormous doors. 

       Kaisen vanished. Cassandra and Bull plunged down the steps with fearsome screams. A lightning bolt tumbled from the sky in a mass of violence to scatter the troops in armor ahead. Fire flickering, Jor strode down the steps, her hands at her blades, roaring to the sky a single, bellowing, drawn out word. "Here!" 

         Soldiers swiveled from laying torches on homes, rose from looting bodies- and Jor suddenly realized something was horribly wrong. Not looting. Eating. 

          The templars without armor were hunchbacked, blood caking snaggleteeth and mottled gray claws. Hideous crystals of red lyrium clustered along their spines in spikes and coils, draining humanity from their veins. 

            They roared at Jor, their voices raw, high and inhuman. 

             Jor, improvising to the last, roared her challenge back, tearing her throat to shreds of iron and agony. She danced into the writhing shadows of flame and smoke, catching sight of the massive trebuchet that rose from the battlements along the lower levels. 

          Cassandra tore through shielded ranks with yells of fury and skilled levelling of blades, slamming the edge of her buckler into the gut of an armored soldier. Lyrium creatures writhed and slashed around Bull and Kaisen, who stood back to back, a dance of blades and rage. Blue glyphs burst to life in a circle at Jor's feet as she moved, sending strength coursing through her veins. It was familiar, it was power and it was Solas. 

           The scholar allowed herself an adrenaline fueled grin as she whirled and slashed from the shadows amongst the invaders, the destruction of her home. She worked her way through Haven's pulsing, burning, littered roads, her companions behind her. Lightning flashed, ice encased a row of seething soldiers. 

        Raw terror filled Jor's lungs with glee as she twisted a knee around the neck of a lyrium creature, spinning to bring it down and tearing its throat from rotting flesh. No thoughts, only purpose. Drive to the trebuchet. Do not pause. Slash, move, dance, fade-- do not pause. 

           The arch demon bellowed its snarling fury from the sky, seeing its allies crumble few by few. Solas arched a dome of shimmering magic over the radius of his company, grimacing as he braced his palms against the air and fire spilled down in torrents of heat. The mage's breath fogged in short, heavy gasps. 

            The dragon, out of juice and frustrated, flapped its massive wings and beat itself higher in the air. Kaisen pressed herself against Jor's side to block the incoming slash of a templar sword. Jor twisted around her sister as she held the blade and drove Tandem deep into the neck of the soldier, yanking it out with a huff of ragged breath. They were certainly a worthy distraction. They were heard. More crystal monsters and ranks of bellowing soldiers surged forward with every crossed level. 

         Then suddenly there were none. They were at the massive oaken feet of the trebuchet, a mass of leather and canvas dangling in the driven snow, the smell of smoke and blood heavy in the air behind them. More torches descended the mountains, far far ahead. But they were coming. Distantly, the dragon screeched. Jor's knees were trembling as she panted, grasping the base of the trebuchet to hoist herself up the crumbling ladder. "Cover me." 

          Her companions arrayed themselves beneath her in a phalanx, weapons raised, magic cascading over their skin in flickering light. Jor scaled the first level of the trebuchet with the agility one would associate with squirrels, digging her gloved hands into the rope and heaving with all her might. The trebuchet's load of boulders clicked into place, the rope skidded from the scholar's hands. 

          She swung herself down and landed in the snow just as the second wave of templars surged through Haven's flaming gates. There were many. So many. Lyrium creatures shrieked and clawed for the companions, fire devoured the path behind them as the dragon made its third pass over the ruins. Too many. 

           The scholar made a snap decision as Solas arrayed a wall of ice between the invaders and the party in a burst of frigid wind. "Go!" she roared, pulling on the rotating wooden spokes of the wheel that would swivel the load to aim. "I've got it, just go!" 

          Solas glanced back at her, looking stricken and pale. The magic was exhausting him. "No way!" Kaisen called over the torrent of wind and screams and destruction.

      "Bull! Cassandra!" Jor barked, tears freezing at the corners of her eyes as she yanked the heavy spokes into place. "This is a direct order. Get them out of here!" 

        The Seeker and the mercenary exchanged desperate glances, each bound by a different unspoken contract. Bull slung Solas over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, earning a disgruntled elven curse and started to sprint and weave his way back to the chapel. Cassandra struck a heavy gauntlet against Jor's arm in rigid farewell as she grabbed Kaisen's wrist and tugged at her to follow. The Crow, her protests lost on the wind, was dragged away. 

         The ice was holding. Jor could hear the templar's shouting orders to flank her around the other side, hear the lyrium creatures howling for blood. Time seemed to slow. Her leather gloves were  slipping on the grainy wood, Jor tore them off. Her mark flashed, as if in protest as she gripped the trebuchet's wheel with all of her strength, her breath coming in heavy gasps as the lithe muscle of her shoulders strained. 

           Clipping one edge of the forces won't do me any good. And I can't hit the arch demon if it's in the sky. Jor's breath fogged in front of her face as chaos roared and toiled behind her. It took all of her will not to turn, feeling her enemy's breath on her neck. Her nose was full of smoke and blood. She glanced up, jade eyes scanning the lights on the horizon and the peaks above them. She nodded once to herself and pulled with all her strength to move the trebuchet just a little to the left. 

            "Herald of Andraste."