Chapter Text
She hated this, and Keeper Deshanna knew that perfectly well. But in her words, this was a task she could only entrust to Valyrill Lavellan, despite her personal feelings on the matter, and she was not about to act like a stubborn child. Because who knew what the outcome of this conclave could be?
In this case, she had to put her clan first and foremost, not her feelings-
A snout nudged her hand and warm air brushed against her, and she let out a small chuckle, moving to continue scratching the halla. “Ir abelas, Revas” she mumbled, switching to scratching right against where horns met fur, and getting a happy noise in return. A smile tugged on her lips, she was going to miss Revas while she was gone, having been with the halla since childhood. Thankfully it wouldn’t be for too long after all, only until the conclave was finished.
A crunch sounds behind her and she tilted her head back to see her keeper right behind her, arms tugged behind her back, a gentle smile on her face as she too went to scratch the halla, to the absolute joy of said halla.
“I appreciate you willing to do this Lethallen, I know you are not…the happiest around this decision.” Valyrill glanced away from the other, ears turning downward in slight displeasure. It was true, she wasn’t happy about it, she didn’t trust shemlen at all. And knowing there was gonna be templars at the conclave as well made her bristle, only thinking back on the times they encountered said group.
On the times the templars took away the children with magic, thinking it was their right to take them only because they wandered a bit too far away from the camp. Hence the reason they make sure the children don’t wander too far away but sometimes it was inevitable. Clan Lavellan was not the only clan with this problem, other Dalish having had similar problems, even if it was a rare occurrence overall.
It wasn’t a case where you could go and take them back just like that, seeing as how unforgiving and entitled the templars were regarding magic. Of course, there had been the few times where they could get the children back home. And that was only on the templars, the other shems were a different business.
Point being, she did not like dealing with humans and templars, too often it got messy.
Her hand twitched a bit, growing restless and she leaned her forehead against Revas, breathing in the familiar scent. Taking a moment just to breathe, to center herself. A warm comforting hand placed itself on her shoulder.
“Your mother would be proud, Da’len.” She grimaced briefly at the words, knowing exactly the reason Deshanna would bring up her mother, not out of maliciousness. But out of a feeling of…something, it was still something Valyrill hasn’t quite understood. In all honesty, she didn’t know how her mother would feel about the current situation, nor did she want to linger on that thought.
Lifting her head, she sent a half-hearted glare at the older elf. “I’m not a child.”
She noted the way the corner of the Keeper’s lips did a slight uptick, and how her eyes tinkled with barely suppressed amusement. “No, of course not, Da’len.”
Valyrill groaned and shook her head, getting a laugh for an answer. Stepping away from Revas with one last pat, she grasped the satchel leaning against the fence, heaving it onto her back. “I’m sorry I couldn’t send anyone else with you.”
She shook her head at the apology, understanding the need for subtlety. Because in reality, the conclave was a known secret, in that she couldn’t simply waltz in there. Lavellan was there to spy, and having more than one clans member there would cause at least some heads to turn. Her clan had stopped briefly as close as they could get to the conclave, which was still a few days travel away. Well at least she didn’t have to travel across the entirety of the Free Marches. As it were, Clan Lavellan was going to stay at this spot for a few days before they traveled further north in the Free Marches, planning to stop near Hereinia briefly before continuing towards Wycome.
While on her end, she would need to cross the Waking Sea before heading towards the Frostback Mountains, to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
Her heart ached at the thought of being so far away from her clan, her home, but she plastered a smile on her face, if only to placate the Keeper.
“Make sure to keep Syrillon out of trouble please, don’t let him experiment with the Royal Elfroot.” She jested, referring to the Second of the keeper, and her closest friend. Confusion flickered across Deshanna’s face before softening, a small breath of laughter escaping. “I promise, Valyrill.” She placed her hand on her shoulder once again, then settling against her neck to tug her forward until their foreheads touched, a small hum vibrating the air around them.
“Dareth Shiral, Lethallen.”
XXX
It had taken her around a week for her to arrive, and then she still had to wait two more days until the conclave started. It did grant her time to look around the place more and find spots she could easily hide in.
For now, she was a bit higher up outside the actual temple, looking down at the lines of mages and templars arriving to the temple. She did spot the Divine earlier for a brief moment, it was hard to get a proper look as there were guards near her.
She noted the mercenary group that was there as well, with some qunari amidst them, most likely there for protection. It was surprising to see qunari mercenaries being hired for something as big as this. There was also a dwarf, she noted that was skulking around on the edges, Valyrill could not be sure, but she would bet the dwarf was a spy as well, or maybe just someone curious.
Heaving a soft sigh, she made her way down the cliff she was on, making her way to melt into the shadows. After all, she was not keen on being seen but she did not dare enter the temple just yet, it was too risky now, the Divine was in there.
Besides, she could more easily discern some stuff whispered amongst the human, from the little she could get from the ones just lingering about. Most of it was words of worry, anxiousness but also some words were of disgust and fear, directed at the mages mostly. There was a tension in the air you could cut with a knife, and she was once again questioning the sanity of the Divine, to hold talks like this when it could easily escalate. The bad feeling she had earlier returned in her stomach, getting her to tense up in preparation for something.
Against her better judgement, she glanced around before slipping inside the temple. To her surprise, it was nearly empty in the big halls of the temple. It was such an odd scene that it unnerved her completely.
Calming herself for a moment, she moved her feet to creep deeper into the temple, still keeping to the shadows.
The bad feeling kept growing, her throat tightened to the point she might just stop breathing.
That was when she heard voices, relaxing briefly before she picked up the words.
“-you doing this? You of all people?”
“Keep the sacrifice still.” The second voice gave her pause, something unsettling in that voice that made her feel something she couldn’t describe as anything else other than terror. Valyrill was already running when the next sentence was uttered.
“Someone help me!”
Lavellan barged through the door, stopping at the scene infront of her. “What’s going on here?!” The Divine was floating in the air above the table, complete terror on her face. There were a few Grey Wardens behind her, holding her with magic, their faces devoid of any emotions. It reminded her of dead husks.
The most out of place was the huge…creature, she couldn’t place what it was, it looked like a darkspawn but also….more human. It was big with disproportionate limbs that was more bone and flesh than anything, something resembling a hood on one side of the head, with the other side having red crystal like adornments.
It was terrifying and in that very moment, she wanted nothing more than to run away from the cold dread that was seeping into her bones. But in that moment, thanks to the creature being distracted, Divine Justinia took that moment to knock the orb, the creature was holding, out of its hand. It rolled across the ground.
It all happened too fast and she wasn’t even thinking before she was moving, blood rushing in her ears before she was grabbing onto the orb. Blood red hot pain flashed through her left arm, reaching her jaw. She wasn’t registering that she had screamed, all she felt was the most excruciating pain she had ever experienced.
And she thought, this was it, she was going to die here. With green light the same shade as her vallaslin, surrounding her. If it wasn’t for the current circumstance, she would have thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed.
And then it all went black.