Chapter Text
Through blinding mist, I climb
A sheer cliff, the summit shrouded in fog, the base
Endlessly far beneath my feet
The Maker is the rock to which I cling.
—Trials 1:12, the Canticle of Trials
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Harry wiped the blood from his face roughly, wincing as the fresh cuts from his fall were aggravated, stinging hot and sharp. Any good cheer he had been feeling a moment before was gone, replaced by the harsh reality of the obstacles now ahead of him as he looked up at the sky.
The Breach was thousands of feet above him. How was he supposed to get up there without his broom?
He really hated to say it, but right in this moment, Harry was truly devastated that somewhere in the afterlife, Voldemort’s soul was rotting in small pieces out of his reach. He wished he had gotten the crazy bastard to tell him how he had figured out the ability to fly under his own power. That would have come in handy right about now.
Brushing the dust and ash from his clothes, he ventured deeper into the shattered ruins, searching desperately for anything that might spark an answer to his predicament.
Unfortunately, all he found at the base of the Breach was another one of those rifts that were popping up everywhere. However, this one appeared different from the other two he had seen. It was a large writhing thing, twisting on itself angrily, and didn’t seem to be able to let any of those creatures through it.
He cast a ward around it all the same. He didn’t need anything interrupting him as he thought up a solution to his problem.
The area was morbidly quiet as he stood there alone, but a strange current began humming in the air that made the fine hairs of his arm rise, and Harry quickly ducked out of the way just before the bottom half of a large rock could smash against his head as it floated over him.
He stared on, bemused as a few more boulders and a large piece of a shattered statue drifted up into the sky, the swirling Breach beckoning the rest of the destroyed ruins to come join it up in the heavens it now commanded. And that gave him an idea. But try as he might, Harry couldn’t reach them in hopes of catching a ride up there, as once he summoned one of them down to his level, it remained earthbound. And the smaller bits of rubbish within reach were too small to take on his added weight.
To make matters worse, his head began to pound quite painfully due to the odd reverberations coming from the creepy, red stones protruding from the ground on the far side of the crater. He wasn’t going to step anywhere near those things. The air around them tasted foul. Worse than the bitter-burnt taste the shimmering threads of magic had from earlier. He could still taste the bitter flavor on the back of his tongue as some of those torn threads attempted to weave back together around him, into some gauze-like shroud he could just make out from the corner of his eye.
And as unsettling as that was, he wasn’t even going to dwell too long on all the charred corpses he had been ignoring up to this point, either. Many could be found standing around, haunting the place like a grotesque gallery of horrors. All of that was for future Harry to deal with, once he was safely back in his sitting room, where he could drink himself into oblivion.
“Now is the hour…victory…Bring forth…”
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when a disembodied voice began drifting in and out of the air, a deep booming growl echoing throughout the ruins.
“What the hell?” Maybe the place was haunted.
“…help me!”
That was a different voice. But both were equally disjointed as they continued to echo out in a loop, a moment in time stuck on repeat. The frightened one poked at the back of his mind, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before. The first was completely unknown, but they sounded like a right bastard.
As a precaution, Harry began casting a string of protection charms and a proximity ward, just in case any violent ghosts decided they took umbrage with his presence here and decided to sneak up on him.
The sky continued to burst with blinding light as the Breach expanded over the mountain range, and Harry was quickly becoming more irritated by the second as every attempt at reaching the portal remained just out of his grasp. It was almost as if something was keeping him earthbound, as even his attempts to levitate himself were a bust. He would only get himself to hover a few stories high before his platforms would crumble under the pressure of the swirling portal, leaving nothing for him to grasp onto.
It was the second time since his curse that he had gasped back to consciousness after falling to his death, spattered in smears of red of his own blood. His skin felt raw after casting an angry scorgify on himself to remove the worst of the gore. At this rate he was looking like an extra from one of those slasher films.
Snatching up a large metal shield from one of the corpses that had been scorched black, Harry hopped on and tried to levitate himself back up to the sky again. He just had to find the right platform, that was all. Although, the way the thick dented metal began groaning under his feet the higher he got was a little concerning.
What could be hindering his attempts? Even the Elder Wand seemed to be useless to get him up there. The absence of his trusty holly wand cut him all the deeper, and it being the second time he had lost it made it all the worse.
He didn’t hold out much hope that his real wand was still in one piece back at the Ministry, not with that Fiendfyre, but maybe his phoenix feather could survive it, if anything. If so, there was a chance he could have Ollivander use it to craft a new wand. Maybe then Harry could snap the cursed Death Stick into little pieces and be done with it.
The Elder Wand grew warm in his hand, almost like it could read his thoughts. Harry glared at it, half-convinced the cursed thing was mocking him.
“I’ll fucking do it, you little shit. Don’t think I won’t,” Harry growled down at the thing. It only hummed with warmth in his clenched fist, mocking him.
He was interrupted from threatening bodily harm on the cursed wand further when the wards around the ruins pinged, warning that something had crossed them.
Several somethings.
“Kid, what are you doing up there?!”
Harry looked down from his floating perch to find that the group from earlier had caught up with him at last. A pity. He had hoped to have escaped from this nightmare plane by now and back to where things made sense. “Oh, you know, just admiring all the sights the mountain has to offer,” he waved a hand around the ruined remains of the temple. “This place is awful.”
The shorter man snorted out a laugh before the Seeker all but pushed him aside. Even from this high up, he could feel her angry eyes burning a hole into his own. “How did you get up there?!”
“Magic?”
From out of the corner of his eye, he spied the hooded woman slinking in behind the rest of the group. If not for his wards, he might have missed her arrival with how silently she was scoping out the place. The squad of soldiers accompanying her all saluted as she pointed to several vantage points around the area, likely handing out orders to lock down the ruins.
His eyes swiftly moved to Aria and Solas, the two having drifted slightly apart from the rest, their heads tilted together as they quietly observed the Breach. Their discussion grew heated as Aria gestured up at the portal in frustration while Solas shook his head, pointing his staff at the twisting rift below them.
As if the man could feel his staring, stormy violet eyes darted up to where Harry floated above them, and that intense gaze locked with his own. The man’s brows furrowed in bemusement at whatever he saw before smoothing out into curious contemplation as he beckoned him to come back down to join them.
Harry had a moment of feeling like a naughty cat being coaxed down from a high tree, and he could feel the tips of his ears warming as the other man gestured again with calm patience.
“What do they want now?” he grumbled under his breath, but flicked his wrist anyway to levitate his little platform back down so they wouldn’t need to keep shouting to hear each other.
Harry hopped down to join the others on the ledge overlooking the crater in the heart of the ruins. Blatantly ignoring the Seeker’s immediate scolding and threats of violence against his person, he raised an expectant brow at the taller man. “What is it?”
Solas frowned at his tone, “If we’re to close the Breach, we’ll need to reopen the rift lying at the base of it. It was the first, and sealing it properly will hopefully be the key to our success in closing it.”
Harry held back the urge to roll his eyes. “And I needed to come down to hear this because?”
“For us to set the plan in motion, we need you to remove the barrier surrounding it so that the mark can access the rift.” The other man said, his deadpan expression implying he thought Harry might be an idiot.
“Oh, right.” Harry’s ears flamed red with embarrassment, the rest of his face quickly growing hot with it. He had completely forgotten about that. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Great! Then let’s get our fine asses down there and get this show back on the road! I got a date with Bianca at the tavern tonight, and I hate to keep my lady waiting,” Varric patted his crossbow fondly.
“We’re going to have a very long conversation later,” the Seeker promised as she glared at Harry. When he only gave her a bored look in return, she shook her head in disgust and stomped away, and began barking orders for the soldiers to get in position.
“I’ll meet you down there.” Harry turned and jumped off the ledge to land in the crater where the rift sat. He was able to bounce and land with little trouble from the twenty-foot drop, casting a quick cushion charm to pad his fall.
He ignored the bickering from above as the rest of the group took the long way around to climb down into the crater. Harry hoped they would give the creepy rocks a wide berth; he didn’t like the way the power from them reached out when you got too close, but from the raised voices coming from the lot, it appeared that his prayers would continue to go unanswered.
Once he released the ward around the twisted rift, Harry winced at the agitated waves emanating from the thing. He wasn’t really sure if opening this broken tear was a smart move. He couldn’t explain it, but he sensed something waiting on the other side. It wasn’t trying to batter its way through like the other rifts, but there was no denying that something malevolent was lying in wait. All it needed was to be patient.
The ghostly voices from before boomed throughout the ruins, clearer than ever, and Harry could hear more shouted arguments from the others when Aria’s confused, disembodied voice joined the other ghostly echoes.
But Harry couldn’t be bothered to listen in on the Seeker’s angry accusations; his attention was captured by the ghost-like figures that appeared above them, acting out the scene their words had only been able to hint at.
It was interesting that Aria and the old woman’s forms were the only ones that were able to be seen clearly. The others that surrounded the woman were shrouded in dark, misty shadows, obscuring their identities. But Harry was correct that the largest shadow that commanded the rest was a right dick.
The scene ended when ‘Aria’ picked up something the old woman had kicked out of the shadow’s hand, the flash of white light blinding before they all faded away.
The longer he stayed here, the more confused by the situation Harry became. Was all this destruction due to a separate, unfortunate, botched ritual? Or was he the one who had caused it all, unintentionally intervening from his side?
“You were there! How can you not remember who attacked Divine Justina?”
“I don’t know!”
“And if we could hear them all, why were only the images of those two visible?” Varric asked as the group finally reached the bottom of the crater.
“The Fade bleeds into this place,” Solas gripped his staff tightly, his keen eyes observing the empty air where the figurers had appeared. “These are echoes of the past, but they can only mirror memories of those who lived it. If those memories are damaged, the Fade can only do so much in the reconstruction.”
“And where was the kid in all this? Didn’t see him there with the rest.”
Harry rubbed at the bridge of his nose, “Because I wasn’t there. Like I said before, I was caught up in a different explosion of magical means.”
Varric stared up at him, his head tilting to the side as he frowned. “A coincidence? Or strange convenience?”
Not caring that it would come off as being rude, Harry ignored the shorter man, giving Solas his undivided attention instead. “I have to warn you, something big is gonna come barging through that tear when you open it.”
Only the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth gave away that he was surprised, “You can feel their presence from here as well?” Solas’ eyes shifted from Harry to the rift.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s not like the others.”
“Is there an issue, Solas?” the Seeker asked.
“It appears that we’ve already attracted attention from the other side, Lady Seeker. You should have your men ready for what might come through to join us.”
The Seeker gave him a tight nod and whirled away. Harry was only giving half of his attention to the woman as she began shouting orders for everyone to have their weapons ready. He was becoming more worried that their success would hinder his ability to get home, but he didn’t know what he should do about it. If he tried to stop them now, he risked getting a belly full of steel and a chest full of arrows for his trouble. And his rising from the grave soon after would only serve to make matters worse.
There were too many of them spread out to knock out all at once, and there were at least two other magicals in Solas and Aria to contend with as well if they chose to stop him. Harry would just have to bide his time and wait for the right moment to take his chance. What that chance was remained to be seen, as his attempts to reach the Breach thus far had failed miserably.
“You ready, kid?”
Harry jumped when Varric gave him a slight nudge. “Yeah, can’t be much worse than the others.”
Someday, Harry would have to learn to keep his big fat mouth shut. As soon as Aria used the mark to open the twisted rift, a monstrous giant of a creature tore through the new opening, the ground shaking underneath its clawed feet as it landed below the rift.
Harry immediately recognized it from the place of nightmares, the booming growl of laughter spewing from its grinning maw as it swung its long, sparking whip out, catching the few soldiers that had been standing too close and sending them flying into the stone walls.
“A Pride demon!” Someone shouted from above, right as a stream of arrows rained down upon the monster. Harry blinked in surprise when every single one of them bounced off harmlessly from its rough, scaled body, and the soldiers on the ground quickly shuffled back in fear as it only laughed louder.
“Its hide is too thick!”
“What are we to do?!”
“There’s more demons coming through! Watch out!”
The rift rippled out, and a group of shades burst from it, the smaller creatures wasting no time in attacking the soldiers on the battlefield. The Pride demon cracked its whip, and a wave of purple lightning took out three more men at once as booming thunder rang out all around them.
Harry quickly began casting as many protective shields as possible on everyone, though the soldiers running around in growing panic didn’t make the task easy. The group was quickly losing ground as every attack on the Pride demon bounced off, even the magical shards of ice and bolts of fire coming from Aria and Solas.
“Aim for the shades!” Leliana could be heard ordering from somewhere above them. “Cassandra, you need to bypass its armor or we’re all dead!”
The Seeker growled as she sidestepped a massive claw, “Yes, because that’s such a simple task!”
“The rift!” Solas shouted as he danced away from a shade attempting to overrun him, only for the creature to erupt into flames and turn to ash a moment later. “Connect to the rift again! If we can disrupt it, there’s a chance that it will weaken its protections!”
Varric fired his crossbow, practically blowing off a shade’s head from its body. “Can she do that?”
“Only one way to find out!” Aria yelled before turning to Harry, “Cover me?”
Faced with the choice of either standing aside and doing nothing, indelibly letting these people be killed to get them out of his way, or helping them and in the process possibly losing his chance, Harry already knew what he would do.
Damn his saving people complex.
Harry nodded to the younger woman, and the two broke out into a swift sprint across the uneven ground, Harry clearing a path for Aria to reach the rift surrounded by a pack of shambling shades. His wand slashed down in short, sharp jabs, the Dark curses hitting their intended targets to leave only smoldering puddles behind them as he covered Aria’s back.
Regardless of whether it was part of the plan, the rest of the soldiers were successful in keeping the attention of the larger demon away from them as Aria skidded to a halt under the tear. Harry gripped her shoulder to help steady her, and a shimmering dome bloomed to life over them, leaving the remaining shades to throw themselves against it.
The rift cast a sickly glow over them as it rippled angrily above. Aria’s golden hair and pale skin shone green to match the glowing mark on her hand as she raised it high, waving it around until it crackled loudly and latched onto the tear above. Harry could hear her teeth grinding together as she clenched her jaw painfully tight, her arm shaking violently while she held onto the magical tether to the rift. But with one harsh tug, the tear crackled like her mark, the creature falling back as a wave of magic crashed over them all.
The Pride demon fell to one knee, but kept a tight hold of its deadly whip, and the Seeker let out a rallying cry. “Now! Together!”
The soldiers all rushed towards the large monster, only to be thrown back as it struck out with both its arms and weapon. Even without the help from the protection of the rift it was feeding from, its scaly hide was thicker than most armor.
The archers were busy picking off the shades from overwhelming the downed soldiers, while Solas and Varric were doing their best to give them aid with the Seeker covering them. The tide was still well against them if Harry didn’t do something to turn it to their favor.
“Hey, you ugly bastard!”
“Harry, what are you doing?!” Aria shouted behind him, but Harry ignored her, keeping the giant demon creature in his sights.
Multiple rows of sharp, squinty eyes turned towards him, and Harry instantly reconsidered all of his life choices. The Pride demon heaved itself back up to its feet, a deep growl emanating from its chest as bright sparks crackled over its body in waves.
“Aria, I can keep this barrier up around you to keep you safe enough, so I need you to stay here and tug on this rift again if we need it.” He explained calmly, though he felt anything but.
“What are you going to do?” Even without looking at her, Harry could tell how frightened she was. But he had to trust that she would do as asked in this situation.
“I’m going to kill this thing.”
Harry left her side before she could try to talk him out of confronting a creature easily three times his size. He already knew it was an awful idea, but better him than the others. Unlike these people, he couldn’t die.
Seeing Harry come running towards it, the Pride demon began laughing once more. It’s whip cracking with excitement.
He vaguely heard one of the others calling out to him, urging him to stay away from the thing. But Harry had never been very good at taking orders from anyone, and wasn’t planning on starting now. He only had eyes for the opponent in front of him, and he could only hope that everyone chose to be smart for once and stayed out of his way.
More arrows rained down upon the creature, this time their tips glowing with hot fire, though every single one of them bounced off just as they had before. Harry cursed under his breath as one of them flew a bit wide, nearly getting him in the neck. He spared a moment to glare up where the small group of archers was perched, but quickly returned his focus to the real threat at hand.
Shaking off the small burning embers from its thick hide, the monster rolled its shoulders and attacked.
Harry dodged out of the whip’s path, sparks flying high as it missed and crashed into the ground, cutting a deep groove where he had just been. The Pride demon wasted no time in reeling it back to whip out again with a booming crack. Harry shivered when he felt something caressing his skin, and nearly banished the foreign magic that covered him before he recognized the strong, protective layer of a shielding spell of some kind.
It came just in time as he was clipped in the shoulder by the next whip attack, not enough to take him down, but enough to hurt and cause him to stumble. Rolling into the fall instead of fighting it, he was able to slide under the large claws that had intended to remove his head from his shoulders.
Springing up and twisting out of the way of another swipe, Harry inhaled a deep, steadying breath and swished his wand in a fluid arch and a sharp slash, “Tolle Pellem.”
The creature didn’t even attempt to get out of the way of the curse Harry had cast at it, either too stupid to see the threat or too arrogant to think it was a danger. The spell burst against its wide chest, and Harry grinned the moment the curse took hold as the Dark magic sank into its hide.
The Pride demon howled as the rough, impenetrable hide began to split apart at the seams slowly. Harry’s nose wrinkled as a thick, putrid liquid began oozing out of the long, deep lines that had been cut into its body. Before the creature could retaliate, he quickly tugged his wand down sharply and watched with satisfaction as the flesh ripped away to splatter at the demon’s feet in large wet strips.
More of the thick, dark ichor streamed down the demon’s broad chest and powerful legs to join the rest of the gore beneath it as it continued to howl in pain. Harry looked to the others to find them all staring in frozen horror at the grotesque sight, and wanted to sigh. “What are you waiting for!?”
Snapping out of it, the archers immediately readied more flaming arrows, the ruins glowing with warm firelight as they all released in tandem. The foot soldiers yelled out as the Pride demon fell to its knees once more, parts of its exposed flesh igniting as the arrows pierced deep into its back.
Without its armored hide to protect it, it didn’t take long for the soldiers to defeat the creature. Harry stood back as it was hacked to pieces until it dissolved into a puddle like the rest of its kind.
Splattered head to toe in dark blood, the Seeker thrust her sword towards Aria, “Now! Seal the rift!”
The younger woman nodded with determination and raised her arm high above her head, the mark latching onto the rift instantly. The scream of pain that followed sounded as if it was being ripped straight from the bottom of her soul. Harry became very concerned as her skin drained of all color and sweat rolled down her face, noticeably drenching her robes.
“Is it working?” Varric asked, his eyes locked on the rift as it twisted and writhed.
“It has to!” The Seeker marched her way through the gore-filled grounds, and only a calmly raised hand from Solas kept her from getting any closer to Aria. What the woman hoped to do was anyone’s guess, but Harry was sure that it wouldn’t be helpful.
Harry watched with the rest as Aria fought to control the mark, and just as it seemed that the woman would fail in the attempt, the large rift began to seal shut. The air exploded with the backlash of magic, knocking everyone off their feet as the tear continued to knit itself back together, reaching so far as the portal above them. The flash of light was blinding to witness as the Breach rippled in the sky and began shrinking in on itself until it condensed down into nothing more than a giant swirling cloud of glimmering green.
Harry couldn’t see up through the portal anymore into that green void, and his heart sank to his stomach as he climbed back up to his feet.
Varric coughed as he struggled to sit back up next to him. “Did it work?”
“Only a partial success, it would seem.” Solas’ face was grave as he stared at where the original tear had once been; in its place, a small, inert rift rippled dimly. “The Breach appears to have become stable, and even partially closed to the other side. But I’m afraid to say that we’ve only bought ourselves an unknown amount of time.”
“But there won’t be any more demons falling from the sky?”
Solas nodded, “Now only time will tell us how long that will remain the case.”
Harry noticed that Aria hadn’t recovered from the backlash of power as the rest of them had and quickly ran to the young woman’s side. She lay motionless on the ground where she had collapsed, her body completely limp as he tried to get her to respond. “Aria!”
“Is she alive?” The Seeker asked, her voice lower than he had heard it till now. And she almost could be accused of looking worried as she watched Harry try to wake the younger woman.
“Her breathing is shallow and uneven, but she’s only unconscious for now,” Harry informed her after checking her pulse. His brows pinched together in concern as he held her hand with the mark. It was still glowing brightly, but wasn’t crackling like before. He cast a few quick diagnostic spells over her, his brows rising into his hairline from how depleted the magic in her body had become.
“Is she alright?” Varric asked. Solas remained silent behind him, but looked no less worried, his eyes locked onto the glowing mark.
“We need to get her to a bed and a healer. The level of magical exhaustion she’s suffering is dangerously high, and it’s a miracle that her body is still going at this point.”
“It’ll be difficult to get her down the mountain in this state,” The hooded woman with the archers said. “Cassandra, can you or one of your men carry her safely?”
Harry spared a moment to look back up at the swirling green cloud above them and bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. “Do you have medical staff back at the village?”
The hooded woman frowned at him but nodded. “We have healers and a few alchemists at the Chantry caring after the Divine. I can send my scouts ahead to make sure they’re ready for our arrival.”
“Was that the building you were holding us in?” After a quick nod of confirmation, Harry shook his head. “Then there’s no need.” He lifted Aria into his arms after a quick Feather-Light charm and recalled the memory of himself stumbling out of the doors of the old building not but a few hours ago. When the image was clear enough in his mind, he gave a slight nod to Solas and Varric, the least tiring of the group, and gripped Aria closer to himself.
“Cheers!”
And with that, he spun on his heel and popped away, leaving a slacked-jawed crowd of people behind him.
Seconds later, Harry let out a gasp as he landed in front of the old stone building with his cargo grasped tightly in his arms. He immediately patted himself down and sighed in relief. It seemed he made the jump without splinching either one of them, thankfully.
He could hear cheering coming from the village square, but ignored it in favor of kicking the doors open to find these healers that woman said should be here.
“Need some help here!” The moment he set foot inside with Aria still limp in his arms, a group of robed figures swarmed them both, and Harry was pretty sure that they were the same group he had run into earlier while escaping this place. Were they just standing around this whole time doing nothing?
“Maker’s Breath! She’s ice cold!”
“Quickly, get her back into her rooms and fetch that alchemist!”
“I was told you had healers here?” Harry said.
“Our best are still with the Divine, and the ones we could spare are spread out outside of the village.”
“There weren’t that many to begin with, sister.”
“Most of the rebel mage ‘delegates’ didn’t even bother to come in the first place. They’ve been hiding in Redcliffe Castle, last I heard.”
Harry barred his teeth at these useless people. “Well, go get one of them! Unless this Divine of yours is holding her innards from spilling out onto the ground, there’s no reason you can’t spare a healer if there’s multiple!”
An older man gasped in horror, “Her Most Holy is in a delicate state and needs as many healers as we have to look after her care. An alchemist will surely suffice in the meantime.”
Harry grabbed the man by his fancy white robes and snarled into his face. “This woman just saved your arses by dealing with that thing in the sky. Get a healer—now.” He took immense satisfaction as the man’s face turned ashen under his glare, scrambling to get himself out of his grip to run off to do as Harry commanded.
The others withered under the poison look he threw at them, nearly tripping over each other when he ordered them to lead him to the nearest bed. They led him back down under the building and to the room he had found Aria before. Harry gently laid her down and did a few scans of his own while he waited. He wasn’t the best at healing, which is why he called for one of their own to see to her care, but if there was something he could help with, he would do it.
His brows furrowed together in a deep line. Her vitals were still strong, but as he looked at a deeper scan of her magical core to get a better idea of the possible damage done due to the strain, he was confused to find that she didn’t have one. It didn’t make sense. She was magical! Her core should be right there, at worst a dim glow, but instead, there was an odd void. That was the only way he could describe what he was seeing.
It was only because he was examining her magical pathways so closely that he saw it. Well, more felt it than seen perhaps. Either way, there was a current flowing through Aria, trickling through the void that maybe was more of a doorway, and whatever that mark was on her hand, it was sucking it all up in greedy gulps.
Aria was still considerably pale and sweating as if she had a fever. And it was no wonder that she was experiencing magical exhaustion when the thing was consuming any trace of magic that her body was able to propagate. Where the magic was coming from, he wasn’t quite sure, but she wasn’t able to create enough to keep both her and the mark going.
Hoping that it wouldn’t harm her, Harry placed his hand over her own and concentrated on feeding some of his own magic into her. The mark devoured it as a starving child would, and Harry could sympathize with how desperate it felt, but clamped down his control and continued to slowly drip-feed his magic to it. It seemed to be working as the mark began to slow down its consumption, and Harry could feel that Aria’s body was able to retain a small portion of the magical reserves her body was desperately trying to regain.
The doorway was crowded with the small group, and Harry glared over his shoulder when a shaky-looking man stayed hovering in the threshold. “Get in here!”
The man squeaked and scrambled over to the bed and began doing whatever these magicals did in this world. The man kept an eye on him the whole time, and Harry wanted to roll his eyes and shake a spine into the man.
“Her magical levels are extremely low but slowly recovering, but I don’t know if she needs additional care because of this thing,” He held up her glowing hand.
The healer glanced timidly at the magical scar and nodded, “Her mana is depleted, but I don’t see any other injuries that are life-threatening.”
That was good to hear. “From what I’ve been able to gather, the mark is feeding from her in some capacity.”
“A lyrium potion might help to boost her reserves, but I don’t think we have the resources here for that.”
Harry didn’t know what that was and left that for later to ask about. “Is there anything else that can be done?”
“Without any lyrium potions at our disposal, bed rest is our best second option. I’m afraid magic like this mark is a little outside of my expertise.”
It was the best he could hope for until the others got back from the mountain. Solas seemed to be the only one so far that appeared to have any idea what to do with the thing.
Harry rubbed at his face with both hands, sighing deeply. It still felt odd not to have his glasses in the way, and the lack of them was going to take some time to get used to. They had always been a safe barrier to fall back on and use when people had become too uncomfortable for him to deal with. He was beginning to feel a little vulnerable without them to hide behind.
“My lord.”
Harry’s head whipped up as the same soldier who had been tasked to watch his door before stood at the threshold, calling for his attention.
“Forgive me, but once Her Most Holy was made aware of your return, she has requested that you come to her chambers for an audience posthaste.”
Reining in the desire to smash his face into the nearby wall, Harry debated whether he should answer the summons or not. On the one hand, it rankled him to be called on like some wayward pet by these strangers. While on the other hand, if this woman was the leader of this militarized group asking for an ‘audience,’ then perhaps he could use this to help gather information on another way to return home. The Breach had been a bust, but people were also dying here, so there wasn’t much choice but to help in the moment.
But if the immediate danger had now passed, there should be fewer obstacles standing in his way, distracting him. The Breach was still swirling up there, though it was merely a strange, massive cloud at present. There still could be a chance that he can find a way back through it.
The soldier shuffled around anxiously by the door, waiting for his answer. Harry cast another concerned look down at the young woman and glared at the healer hovering over her. “You stay here and keep her monitored until that Seeker woman comes back with a man named Solas. Make sure he takes a look at her when they return.”
The man trembled under his hard stare, and Harry worried that he would end up keeling over as soon as he left the room.
Hoping he wouldn’t end up regretting his choices, Harry strode out of the small room and beckoned the soldier to lead the way. This ‘Divine’ of theirs better have something for him to work with.