The Heart of a Dragon (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Buried in the Snow

There was a festive atmosphere in camp, everyone dancing and singing and drinking. The Breach was closed. After all the work of getting to that point, it had taken remarkably little effort to seal it once and for all compared to what most of them had expected. It had still taken a lot out of Ren, though, clearly—she was gamely trying to conceal her exhaustion, but the shadows under her blue eyes had to be evident to anyone who looked at her.

The Iron Bull hung back, not wanting to crowd her. But he couldn't help wondering what would come next. What purpose did the Inquisition serve now that the Breach was closed? There would be rifts to close here and there, but would it mostly be clean-up, or would the Inquisition go on to plead the cause of mages everywhere, or to find the Grey Wardens?

He wondered if those questions were the ones plaguing Ren as she stood watching the camp, talking quietly with Cassandra. Then he saw her head come up, her whole body stilling, and he looked past her to see what she had seen—the lanterns of an approaching army on the move.

Moments later, the alarms started ringing.

A young man arrived at the gates, a strange-looking boy in a giant floppy hat who appeared half-dead and was babbling on about the Elder One, who led the army that was toiling up the mountain. The Elder One wanted Ren, angered at the way she had caused the failure of his plans both at the Conclave and at Redcliffe.

The army in question comprised the entirety of the Templar Order, heavily altered by the consumption of red lyrium. The Iron Bull saw Ren and the Vint mage Dorian exchanging distressed looks when they saw the Templars getting closer, and he guessed that this was the kind of shit they had seen when they went forward into the future at Redcliffe.

Well, this was no future he wanted any part of. He was happy to charge into battle against these red Templars and swing his blade against them. He was even happy to have the Vint and the other mages along, with their big destructive spells taking out swaths of the Templars.

And it was almost enough. They got the trebuchets in motion, pounding at the hills and sending waves of snow down on the approaching Templar army. It seemed to be working ... until a giant fucking dragon swooped down from the darkened sky, shrieking and beating its wings, and the residents of Haven fled into the Chantry, the only defensible structure in the village.

Ren was the last one in, having taken her time and collected as many stragglers as she could, breaking into burning buildings and dragging people out bodily when necessary.

She looked to Cullen for guidance, and for some kind of last, desperate plan, but Haven had never been intended as a fortress. Cullen had done the best he could with it, but you couldn't defend it for any length of time, and certainly not from a dragon. The Iron Bull wasn't surprised when the last thing Cullen had left was to sell their lives as dearly as they could. He'd always thought that deep down Cullen was ready to give it all up; that was a man who had seen enough in his life to last him for eternity. The defection of the Templars to this Corypheus asshole, this Elder One, had been the last straw.

Then the strange young man, Cole, spoke up on behalf of Chancellor Roderick, the Chantry brother who had been hanging around and complaining constantly since before the Iron Bull had joined the Inquisition. Roderick was wounded, too badly to speak for himself, but Cole could apparently read his mind, which the Iron Bull found creepy as shit.

Through Cole, Roderick told them all about a hidden path up the mountain behind Haven. The Iron Bull supposed that just went to show you never spurned a resource, even one who had spent months on end calling the Herald of Andraste names, or, for that matter, one who showed up at the gate just ahead of an attacking army. The Iron Bull could see Cullen's embrace of death ease, see his agile mind turn to ways to cover the escape of the Inquisition's people. All of the options meant that someone had to stand against Corypheus and his dragon to give the rest of the Inquisition time to escape. The Iron Bull intended to speak up and offer to do so himself, but before he could ... Ren did.