Da'len

A desperate man's truth

Taniel didn't know how much time had passed anymore. He knew that somewhere along the way they had found Leliana in a torture chamber and had brought her up to speed on the way. But in the darkness of the castle, time was a distant thought. What mattered was staying alive and getting back. Yet no matter how much he told himself that he should just focus on that, Taniel couldn't keep his mind from running in circles.

She was alive - harmed, broken, bleeding - but she was breathing, and she was here. She was right next to him and he would be damned if he let her slip between his fingers a second time.

Bull had volunteered to carry Avery seeing as he was the only one who would be able to fight while carrying her in one arm. Even so, Taniel was glued to her side whenever they had the chance to take a small break, even if it was right after a battle and Solas and Dorian had to take turns forcing him to drink a health or lyrium potion.

But to Taniel it felt like if he stopped touching her for even just a second, she would disappear. Dorian and Solas it seemed, had made a secret agreement to leave Taniel to tend to his sister on his own. They would have their chance later.

But first they would have to fight.

So, by the time the last guard dropped in the courtyard before Alexius's throne room, Taniel was practically bouncing on his feet. Even as tired as he was from the fight, Dorian had to force back the smile as he drank a lyrium potion.

"What do we do about Avery?" Bull asked from where he was checking that all the guards were down, Avery still asleep cradled in his left arm. "We can't exactly carry her into a battle against the evil magister. No offence Dorian."

Dorian waved a hand. "None taken. You do have a point, but we can't exactly just leave her here, can we? The courtyard is way too open for that, anyone could come out and see her lying there."

"We could hide her." Solas suggested, his eyes darting around on the floor as he tried to form a plan.

"I hope you don't plan to shove her in a box," Dorian joked as he looked around for a spot to hide her.

"Luckily, no. But we could put her in a place where nobody would walk over her and put a glamour on her so she would be invisible to the naked eye. The only way someone will see her is if they know she is there or if they accidentally touch her."

Taniel didn't like the idea of leaving her somewhere this open and unprotected but it was safer than putting her in the middle of a fight against Alexius. While they looked around for a safe spot, Dorian went to investigate the door to Alexius's chamber and a few seconds later they heard him give a frustrated sigh. "Alexius, you tricky bastard, you couldn't make it easy just this once?"

"What's wrong?" Solas asked, standing up from where he was kneeling next to one of the fallen mages.

"The door he set up. It requires a bit more to open it than just a simple push."

"Could it have something to do with this?" Solas asked as he bent back down to the corpse he was studying a while ago. He pushed some of the folds of the man's robe aside and picked up a small red shard. "I noticed it while Bull was checking the bodies earlier."

"That's it!" Dorian exclaimed as he glided closer to investigate the glowing stone. "Knowing Alexius, it's likely he spread the other shards between some of the other guards to lower the chance of us finding them, or at the very least to buy him some time." The paused for a second before nodding to himself and turning to face Taniel. "Will you and Bull be able to handle finding a safe place for Avery? The rest of us will go find the other shards."

Taniel was stunned for a second before he could answer. "Are you sure? It could be very dangerous."

"That's what makes it fun," Dorian said with a small chuckle. "Besides, I saw the others fight earlier, if Alexius's men knew what was coming, I'm pretty sure they would just drop the stones and go hide in a closet."