Chapter Text
“Are you sure you’re up to this, Varric?” Cassandra questioned as she gazed up at the castle on top of the hill.
Madeleine was still surprised at the concern in Cassandra’s voice. She had been hovering around Varric like a healer with her first patient. “I’m not sure any of us are up to this,” she admitted.
“I’m fine, Miracle,” Varric assured her.
“Just don’t die on me,” Madeleine pleaded. “I couldn’t handle it if we lost you.”
“What about me?” Dorian demanded to know.
“We’ve already seen what happened when Thedas lost you for a year,” Madeleine reminded him. “No one could handle anything like that.”
“You are so amusing,” Lucy’s voice was deadpan as she joined them. “My saarebas are prepared.”
“Bull?” Madeleine glanced at him as he arrived with the handful of Chargers.
“Once the gates are down, we’ll flank anyone coming out of that castle,” he promised.
She gulped. “Let’s do this.”
Madeliene’s team moved behind the saarebas. If the Red Templars who had attacked the night before were awake, then they were hiding from the force in front of her. She had to admit they were an impressive sight.
Lucy’s team chanted softly as they walked up the hill. For a group who’d had their mouths sewn shut for most of their lives, they were rather vocal. Lucy had told them they were enacting spells, a form of magic that required no hands but rather words to create the desired effect.
When they reached the castle, the saarebas threw fireballs at the doors. Others pounded against the walls with fists made of stone. A few had figured out how to get the fists to sail over the tops of the baileys.
There were noises now coming from the castle. Yet when the gates burst into flame, the portcullis was up.
No, Madeleine realized, it was missing. As her forces entered the gates, she noticed it off on the ground, a rusted heap. As The Iron Bull led the Chargers and the saarebas further into the castle, destroying those who had attacked them, Madeleine continued to look around. There were dead, decaying bodies in Templar armor littering the ground. Some of the bodies had red lyrium growing out of them, the lyrium glowed against the wet grass. As she continued to explore, she noticed there was red lyrium growing out of the wall, like it had at Redcliffe Castle. She carefully moved closer to the walls, gripping her stave, ready for an attack that never came. Looking closer, she noticed dry blood splattered on the stone, near where the crystals jutted out. Well, sh*t. “Dorian!” She called to her friend, her voice soft, yet it still carried across the courtyard.
“I don’t think you want to be looking at that, Miracle,” Varric warned her.
“What… how are the crystals coming out of the walls?” Dorian questioned.
“There’s dried blood.” Madeleine started to reach out.
“Don’t,” Varric grasped her wrist. “Don’t touch it. Remember what I told you about Bartrand and Meredith.”
“It’s, that’s dried blood, isn’t it?” She was surprised her voice was so calm.
“It is,” he confirmed. “I don’t know if it came from the Templars or the previous inhabitants.”
“It was likely both,” Dorian decided. “That’s a cheerful thought, isn’t it?”
“There were less than we expected,” The Iron Bull reported to Madeleine. “Cassandra probably could have taken out those by herself. They were likely the very Templars who attacked us last night. The rest seem to have already been dead.”
“They probably succumbed to the Red Lyrium,” Cassandra deduced as she joined them. “The bodies look worse than those inside the Grand Necropolis.”
“The Red Templars don’t exactly look good when alive, Seeker,” Varric pointed out.
“You do have a point there, Varric,” Cassandra agreed.
“They’re all dead now,” The Iron Bull reminded them. “What should we do with the castle? Lucy thinks we should tear it down.”
Madeleine scanned the area. The castle sat on a large hill, looking out over miles of terrain around it. If it was fixed up, it would be a wonderful, defensible position. As it was, there was red lyrium growing out of the walls. “How hard would it be to repair?”
“It might take some time,” Cassandra warned.
“But it would be worth it,” The Iron Bull added. “Let’s keep a group protecting the castle. I’ll send word to the base and see if I can’t recruit any locals. I believe there will be those who want to help, especially if we close the rifts around here in the meantime.”
