Mythal's Favour: A Dragon Age Origins Fan Fiction

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 – The Darkest Days

Ayu stood slowly, ever so slowly. Time seemed to slow, each movement taking moments longer than it should. Her body raged around her, but the elf could not control it. She was in control. Trapped within, Ayu felt the crackle of magic spark off her body, and saw the long tongues of vicious flames coil around her. The air was hot and dry in her lungs, getting worse with each ragged breath. Try as she might, Ayu could not gain control. Phoenix’s wrath was palpable and the Warden could not stop her.

 Searing heat surrounded her. The vegetation around her feet sent up tendrils of fine silver smoke as she walked into the heart of the melee. Her eyes locked with each of the beings left on the field and she knew none would leave alive. Ayu pleaded within her own mind to stop, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Phoenix would not be dissuaded.

 A torrent of energy burst from her body, spilling out from all sides. A blinding light clouded her vision and the meadow ceased to be.

  ***

 Zevran gathered the remainder of his strength, racing back down the path and back to his Warden. He had to get to her, whatever remained of her. He clutched his bleeding side as he moved; each step racked his body with pain. One of Loghain's men had run him clean through just below his ribs in a lucky strike. Jamming his dagger through the man's eye had not been nearly satisfying enough.

 He stumbled to a stop at the end of the path, leaning against a scorched tree with one arm. He retched behind it, both from the blinding pain and the sight before him. The meadow had been made bigger by at least six feet in all directions. The trees, that once stood tall and strong, had been burned completely away. The meadow itself had been destroyed by the flame. Burned bones stuck up from the blanket of ash, like dead fingers clawing for freedom. Zevran urged himself into the remains of the meadow, nearly tripping on fallen debris. A sword's blade was stabbed into the earth, the leather grip nearly all burned away. Helmets and bits of metal armor lay scattered in the wasteland around him. Zevran shivered at the eerie stillness. Dragging his feet, Zevran kept moving forward in an effort to find his Warden. His amber eyes scanned the desolation, fear creeping into his gut.

 Moving around the charred rib cage of the ogre, he finally spied his prize. Ayu lay in the ash, face-down, with her limbs sprawled out around her. The red of her hair picked up the late afternoon light and it glowed like an ember in the coals. Her armor was in tatters, barely covering her milky white skin. Zevran staggered toward his love, falling to his knees beside her. Tiny puffs of ash fluttered from under her face as she breathed. Relief washed over him as he gently grasped her shoulders and rolled her into him. He pulled her tight to his chest and held her there a moment. He was breathing heavily from exertion and pain, but he knew that he could not keep her there. His wounds needed tending. Sticky, dark blood clung to his armor and ran down his side.

 Heaving himself and his precious cargo to his feet, Zevran slowly made his way back to the others.

***

Ayu heard the crackle of the fire and felt its heat upon her face before her eyes would even open. She felt trapped within her own body for a time, hearing the others moving about but unable to interact with them. She drifted in and out, sometimes awake and sometimes asleep – her world had gone completely black. When her eyes finally opened one night after the explosion in the meadow, Ayu was weary and more than a little upset.

 She forced her body to rise and she bolted on unsteady feet away from the campfire. She had to know what had happened in the meadow. She remembered the heat and the fire, floating in the air surrounded by golden light and then - nothing. Nothing, until she had awoken. Ayu was not even sure what day it was. She strode from the camp, quickly finding the path that her friends had used to find this place. The Warden followed it as quickly as her feet would take her. She needed to know.