Siblings of the Inquisition

Chapter Two

With a groan Kaaras blinks awake, confused and strangely exhausted.

He barely notices the fact that he's on his knees, wrists manacled, when his hand suddenly throbs. Sucking in a breath, he glances at it and is startled to see a pulsing green light emit from his left palm. Grey eyes widen. What the fuck happened to me? He glances around to find himself in a room with four soldiers, each with their sword pointed at... him. In the next moment the door slams open and two woman walk in. One is muscled, with short dark hair and shiny silver armor embossed with an eye on the front of her breast plate. The other is short—by his standards anyway—and wears a purple cloak, red hair hidden beneath a hood.

Dark-Hair glares at him, fire in her eyes. "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now," she spits. "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except you."

Kaaras blinks. "Wait, and you think I'm responsible? You're kidding!"

"Explain this!" She grabs the manacles and lifts them up for him to see—just as his palm flashes green again. He feels sick.

"I... can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I don't know what that thing is or how it even got on my hand!"

"You're lying!" She lifts her hand back as if to strike him and Kaaras automatically flinches away, but nothing comes.

"Cassandra." Purple Cloak has moved slightly in front of him. "We need him, Cassandra."

"Whatever the hell you think I did, let me go," he demands. "I'm innocent."

Purple Cloak looks at him. "Do you remember what happened? How this began?"

"I remember running. Things were chasing me, and then... a woman?"

"A woman?"

"She reached out to me but then..." Kaaras' head begins to ache and he trails off.

"Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take him to the rift," Cassandra orders, and the other woman exits.

He eyes Dark-Hair. "So what did happen?"

Cassandra's face flickers with emotion for a moment before disappearing. She tugs him to his feet and replaces the manacles with rope. "It would be easier to show you."

She guides him through the halls until they're outside, where she glances up. Kaaras follows and his breath catches in his throat; the the snowy sky is dark with clouds, tinged green from a swirling hole in the center.

"What the hell..." he mumbles.

"We call it the Breach," she explains. "It's a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It's not the only rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave."

"How in the Maker could an explosion cause this?"

"We don't know. All we know is that it did and, unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world." Just as the Breach flares above them, pain slices through Kaaras' hand and he collapses to the ground. Cassandra kneels in front of him, sympathy in her eyes. "Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads... and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn't much time."

"You say it may be the key." Kaaras shakily sucks in a breath as he flexes his fingers. "To doing what exactly?"

"Closing the Breach. Whether that's possible is something we shall discover shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours."