Orphans
~Chapter 8~
Ella pushed Jarad out of harm's way, but at the cost of offering up her own body to the two lightning tinged whips. As they connected with her back she went flying into the crumbling rock face, her side smacking painfully into a jagged edge of uncut rock. Spots danced across her vision and she could feel her spine crack loudly when she tried to move.
“Ughhh…” ‘damn that hurts, stupid Pride Demon.’
She hears a roar of rage and managers to slightly angle her head so she can see what is happening.
Jarad is trembling in rage and his fists clench tightly around his magical staff, so much so that it begins to crack and splinter. The cracks of wood pierce his flesh slightly, so he drops his staff and builds up a ball of bright blue magical energy that gathers and flows over and around his large grey hands. Ella can feel the power even from so far away, and watches as the bright blue fades to a light grey as it swirls around her brother.
Jarad forced his hands out in front of him, and in doing so, pushed the energy out of his body and into the Pride Demon’s lower leg. It falls to the floor in pain as it lets out a cry of its own rage. Bowing its head it starts to gather its own type magical energy around it, but instead of cool blue, it pulses a deep corrupted purple as it swirls in broken streams around the demon's feet.
Snapping out of their momentary shock, the archers start to let loose a volley of arrows into the demon’s hide, and a small swarm of warriors break from the protective wall to hack and slash at the demon’s legs, arms, and lower back.
Then Jarad is running over to Ella, “Solas! Get over here!” He slides on his knees slightly as he land next to her, gently maneuvering her to lie on her back as he lifts her head into his lap. His hands start to shine darkly, glinting like a coating polished blue stones under the light of the breach. Ella feels her pain ease slightly.
She smiles up at him slightly, “Now I know why Varric calls you Shiny…”
He mock glares at her, and shifts his hands slightly, “Well, I still don’t know why you are called Bright. You are darker than most things.” Ella feels her side go numb.
Solas appears beside her, his hands glowing a more subtle deep blue as he kneels beside her. She feels the pain lessen significantly as the sensation of his cool magic slid across her damaged skin, knitting bone, muscle, and flesh.
Ella let out a sigh of relief as all of her pain melts away. She carefully lifted her upper body to lean onto Jarad. He helped her up slowly, supporting her light weight with his bulkier frame. Once she was back on her feet they turned back towards the Pride Demon who has risen and was attacking again.
Varric suddenly yelled out, “Catch, Bright!” He threw a red bottle at her from across the room, a poultice potion.
Jarad reached out and catches it for her before uncorking it, handing it to her he says, “Drink up!”
Ella grabs the bottle, takes a swig, and coughs violently, “Jarad, You said it wasn’t so bad! You damn liar!”
Jarad laughs at her pain, and even Solas chuckles lightly before going back to casting barriers at the soldiers still fighting the demon.
“Whatever,” She frowns(coughpoutscough), “We should probably help…”
“Yeah…” They share a look before both shrug, “Last one to get a hit in before it dies has to get dinner.”
“Deal.”
Jarad starts hurling fire, ice, and pieces of rock into the demon, it doesn’t work very well.
“The demon is connected to the rift,” yelled Solas glancing back at them, “Perhaps you could use the marks to disrupt that connection and weaken its armor.”
Ella shoots him a look, “How? You know what, I’m just gonna go for it.” She takes of in a run toward the rift before disappearing to the naked eye.
She reappears below the rift and lifts her glowing green hand towards it, pulling with her magic. A shock wave passes through the floor, shaking the ground, and making the demon drop to it’s knees. It also kill any lesser demons that popped out.
Cassandra looks at Ella shocked before raising her sword with a battle cry, “Attack now! While it is vulnerable!”
The archers start to fire faster at her cry, and the soldiers start putting more power behind their swings. Solas and Jarad are still casting from farther away, but they are putting more power behind their attacks now.
Ella disappears again to appear beside the demon. She digs her daggers deep into the unprotected flesh of the back of it’s neck, then she drags down, using her body weight to her advantage. The blades bite deep, and the beast howls it's agony across the battlefield before falling forward to land on its face, twitching slightly. The soldiers barely move out of the way in time.
Cassandra comes in with a war cry, swinging her sword down in a large arch toward the back of the neck, severing flesh from bone in a black, bloody spray. The demon stops moving before exploding out in a flash of burning emerald and dark violet. The energy swirls in a cyclone before moving up towards the breach.
Cassandra turns to face Ella, “Quickly! Seal the breach!”
Jarad runs over to Ella and they both turn towards the bright green rift that cracks and shifts, forming shaded crystal like images that constantly shift and change. They both reach their hands up, her left and his right, and use the marks to force it closed. The world then explodes into blackness for Ella.
“Sister!”
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Jarad rushed to Ella’s side, “Sister!”
Solas walked up to stand beside him, and his hand flashed a bright soothing blue briefly, “She is fine, likely exhausted, I would assume”
Jarad nods before trying to pick her up, only to hiss in pain that explodes from his left arm and hand.
Solas levels a look calmly at him, “I do not think their is much anybody can do to heal that, currently. However, I could numb it a bit for you, if you would like.”
Jarad nods slightly, lifting his hand up slightly into Solas’ glowing hands. He feels his arms go numb before looking around, frowning, then looks back at Solas, “Will you carry her? I do not trust any of these other men to do so.”
Solas looks shocked for a moment before glancing around as well, catching some of the male soldiers looking at the unconscious girl with wonder, awe, and no small amount of lust. Well, some of the females were too, but he was sure that the men were a bit more worrying.
He nodded sharply before carefully shifting Ella’s weight from Jarad’s arms to his own. He slowly stood up with her in his arms, and shifted her slightly to get a better grip on her. He positioned his arms underneath her knees and back, and started walking towards the seeker.
Jarad followed shortly, stifling a pained gasp whenever he jostled his arm a bit too much.
Cassandra walks up to them, “You can place her in the cart, on the clean stretcher. I won’t let anything happen to her,” She shoots a look at Jarad’s right arm that clench tightly to his other, marked, one, “You should also get in the cart, though you will not get a stretcher.”
“I’ll sit by her side than,” He said, “Thank You. Solas could you put her...”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
While on the ride back to Haven, Jarad passes out against the wagon’s sides.
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Ella woke up alone, in a creaky bed, in a unfamiliar house, and in a hideously brown suit like piece of clothing.
Then a female elf with short curly red hair came in, whistling slightly to herself, and carrying a wooden box full of items. She shut the door with her foot as quietly as she could, turned around, saw Ella sitting up in the bed, and dropped the box on her own feet.
“Ow!”
Ella jumped out of bed, stumbling a bit on her numb legs, “Are you alight?”
The elf woman looked panicked for a moment, “Oh! I didn’t know you were awake, I swear!”
Ella looked shocked for a moment then concerned, “It really is no problem, but is your foot okay,” she then looked thoughtful, “Also what is your name?”
The woman took a small step back in surprise before replying, “Meriva is my name, My Lady! I’m fine, I am but a humble servant.”
Ella looks around, “Where am I? Why am I here?”
The girl drops down to her knees and bends her head to touch the floor, “You are in Haven, My Lady. They say you and the Qunari with you saved us! The breach stopped growing, just like the mark on your hand.”
Ella places a finger to her cheek in thought, “I see…” She frowns down at the woman, “Get off the floor, please. You don’t need to…”
The elf scrambled up quickly towards the door, “I’m sure Lady Cassandra would want to know your awake. At once she said, at once!”
“Alright, where is she?”
“In the chantry with the chancellor. At once, she said,” The elf was about to run out the door..
“Wait!” She stopped, “Do you have any other clothes, some that aren't so...tight…and ugly...and brown.”
The girl blinked with her big eyes a few times before running over to a desk and rummaging through it. She pulled out a black pair of pants and a dark blue shirt, “You are a bit bigger than a normal elf, but not quite big enough for human clothes. To get some better fitting clothes you should get some measurements and custom clothes,” She stopped for a moment, “But I’m not telling you what to do, My Lady.”
It was Ella’s turn to blink, “Of course not. Could you help me unbutton this?”
“Yes, My Lady.”
After a long and tenuous battle, they wrestled the ugly clothes off and put on the blue shirt and black pants.
It was still very tight and hugged all her curves, and not necessarily the good ones. The elf girl frowned for moment before running to the door and grabbing a long, dark brown coat with navy trim.
Ella smiles, “That will work!”
After asking where the chantry was, Ella set out to find Cassandra. As she was walking through the village people moved around her so that she could have a clear path. The soldiers tilted their heads and banged their hands over their chest.
Ella started walking faster.
When she rounded a corner she saw Varric, and standing next to him him was Jarad.
She walked quickly up to him, before tapping his shoulder.
“Brother!”
He turned, startled, before smiling widely, “Hey, Your finally awake! I was worried, even though Solas said you would be fine.”
She stood beside him, “What do you mean?”
“You have been getting your beauty sleep for about three days, I mean, I know you love your beauty sleep, but isn’t that a bit overkill?”
Ella punched him in the arm, “Three days...that is quite a bit of time, huh?”
“Yep.”
She shakes her head before turning to Varric, “Hello Varric.”
“Good afternoon to you, Bright. Shiny here was just telling me about how worried he was for you.”
Jarad interjects loudly, “Come on we should go to Cassandra.”
Ella laughs, “Sure.”
They start walking towards the chantry together, “Bye Varric!”
“See you later, Bright and Shiny!”
As they are walking Ella starts talking, “So what are we gonna do?”
Jarad looks down at her and lets out a humming sound of confusion.
“Are we gonna do anything different? Should we follow the script? Do things different? We could...save people.”
“We could.”
“Are we going to?”
Jarad hums lowly, “Yes, I think we should.”
Ella turns to him sharply, “But what are we gonna change.”
He grabbed her shoulders tightly with both hand and bent down slightly to look into her eyes, “Where you go, I go. What you do, I will do my best to follow. I’m your big brother so I have to take care of you right? Besides you need someone by your side to help you make decisions, but on most things I’m going to let you decide. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you do something stupid, cause I’ll stop you if you try, but I got your back.”
“I’ll still listen to your council on the big things, brother. Most of the little things too”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you didn’t I just might question if you’re still my little sister.”
He let go of her shoulders and they starting walking towards the chantry again.
When they came around the bend they heard a loud feminine voice yell, “Lissa!”
Then Ella was knocked down into the hard, packed down by hundreds of feet, snow by a small, but strong, weight.
“I’m so sorry, Herald! Lissa get up quickly, that is the Herald.” A middle aged woman starts to run over with a baby in her arms.
Ella blinks slowly up from her spot on the ground before realizing she has a weight in her arms. She looks down and realizes it's a little human girl, who looks to be about six or seven.
The young girl groans, “Owie,” then looks up with big bright blue eyes that widen in shock when the woman’s voice reaches her and then she tries to scramble away, “I’m sowwy Hewald!” She rocks backwards when she loses her balance.
Ella gently reaches out and grabs her arms to stop her, “It’s alright little one, it was an accident. I’m sure you were just having a bit of fun. What’s your name? My name is Ella.”
The girl looks down shyly, “Lissa…” She mumbles.
The other woman finally reaches them, “Lissa!” she screams shrilly, “Get off of the Herald now!” She reaches down with her unoccupied hand to grasp Lissa’s forearm roughly. Lissa cringes and gasps slightly, “I’m sowwy Madame Mawen, pwease stop giving me Owies!”
Ella glares at the woman, “Let her go, now!” ‘How dare this bitch hurt a child, an innocent child!’
The woman looks up shocked, “My Herald, she is nothing but an orphan and-”
“She said let her go, madame.” Jarad steps up.
She glances quickly in between Ella and Jarad, “I-I...as you wish.” She lets go of the girl and Lissa drops to her small, shaking knees and grabs her slightly bleeding arm.
The woman starts to walk away, but Jarad interrupts her, “Give us the baby to, as you obviously can’t care for children.”
The woman walks back with a scowl and gives Jarad the child in her arms before stomping away angrily.
Ella crouches down to her knees, “Lissa, do you want to come with us so we can heal your ‘Owies’?”
Lissa glances around unsure, “But why would you want to help a-a worthless, unwanted orphan like me?”
Ella opens her arms, “You are not worthless orphan, you are a loved child. Will you come with us so we can show you that as we heal you?”
Lissa looks at Jarad and the baby before turning to look at the ground. She mumbles barely above a whisper, “Can my baby bwother come to? The other Hewald is holding him…”
“Of course! What is his name?”
“...Dilan…”
“Ok, let’s go than! Will you allow me to carry you?” Lissa nods before throwing herself into Ella’s arms, “It huwts, Miss Hewald.”
Ella looks sadly down at the girl before ruffling her bright blonde hair, “I know da’len, but we are going to fix that okay?”
“What does da’len mean?”
She smiles down at her, “Da’len means little one, it is Elvhen.”
“It is weally pwetty!”
“You are really pretty.” Lissa smiles widely with a missing front tooth, “You weally pwetty, Miss Hewald!”
Ella chuckles lightly, “Just call me Ella okay? None of this Herald business.”
The little girl looks confused for a minute before smiling again, “Auntie Ella is really pretty.”
Ella smiled at her before turning to Jarad who was rocking the small boy in his arms, “That is Jarad okay? He is my brother.”
Lissa nodded before waving wildly at him, “Hello Uncle Ja-Jawed,” She pouts, “Your name is hard to say.”
Jarad laughs loudly, “You can just call me Jay, Lissa.”
“Okay uncle Jay!” She chirps.
Ella smiled lightly before addressing Jarad, “Do you know where the healer’s tent is?”
“No, but I do know where Solas is, and he did a pretty good job at patching you up.”
'Yes let us go see the god, but not a god, of the elves. You know the one you have a crush on?'
Ella sighed lightly, seeing she had no choice, before nodding, “Lead on then, brother.”
Jarad nodding before turning and walking off, and Ella followed, bouncing the girl on her side. She giggled loudly and started to play with Ella’s hair.
In no time at all they came across three wooden cabins that formed a box like shape that opened to the rocky path that connected Haven. Jarad strolled right up to the one on the right and knocked on the door.
Ella heard the footsteps before the door opened to reveal Solas, who was wearing what he usually does in the game. ‘He does kind of look like a hobo…a hot one’
Solas glanced at the baby in Jarad's arms before raising an eyebrow, “What would you- You are awake,” He notices Ella...then he sees the kid in her arms as well and raises his other eyebrow.
Ella scratches the back of her head with her free hand, “Well you see, umm...we don’t know where the healer’s are, but we know you can heal, and Lissa got hurt...er, that’s the little girl in my hands, and we were hoping you could heal her?” She rushes out in one breath.
He blinks in shock for a minute before nodding, “ma nuvenin,” He opens the door wider, before stepping aside to let them pass.
Ella steps in first followed by Jarad. She glances around and notices the clutter of books everywhere, but it is generally neat, “I gather you like to read?”
He blushes slightly before collecting a small pile of books and moving them to a wooden desk in the corner, “You caught me as I was organizing. You can set her down on the bed.”
Ella does so before ruffling Lissa’s hair again and sitting beside her, “My friend Solas is going to heal you now, da’len.”
Lissa nods before frowning and leaning forward to whisper into Ella’s ear, “What does ma nuvenin mean?”
Ella does the same, “It means as you wish.”
“Is it Elvhen again?”
Ella nods with a smile.
Solas walks over then and sits on the other side, “Can I see where you were hurt little one?”
Lissa shows her hurt arm to Solas, and he frowns slightly, “Those look like...where did you obtain these da’len?” He asks softly, reaching out to gently grab her arm.
“Madame Mawen.”
“Who is-,”He turns to Ella, “Who is Madame Mawen?”
“A Bit-”
“Madame Mawen work at the orphanage mister Solas. She is really mean to all the kids.”
“I see”...he frowns still looking at the marks on her arm, “Do you any other injuries da’len?”
Lissa shakes her head quickly, “No, she says that whores with less marks make better money.”
Solas almost drops her arm in shock, and turns to look at her sadly. Ella lets out a growl from deep within her throat.
“...What is a whore? Madame Mawen would never tell me when I asked.”
Ella lets out a breath, “Nothing you will have to worry about any longer, Da’len. How many orphans are there? How many caretakers?”
Lissa tilts her head to the side, “Only Madame Mawen, and about six boys and six girls, including me and my brother. The oldest is thirteen years old and my brother is the youngest! He is only a year old!...I’m six!”
“Six what? Months?” Ella teases.
“What! No, Six years!” Lissa pouts up at her.
“Okay, I believe you.”
Solas clears his throat, “Okay Da’len I’m going to use magic to heal this, is that alright?”
Lissa’s blue eyes go wide, “YES! I always wanted to see magic. Oh please mister Solas, show me!”
Solas chuckles lightly, “I will, but only if you calm down da’len.”
Lissa goes rigid and straight, Solas sighs lightly with a small smile, “Breathe Da’len.” She takes in a big gulp of air.
“Just relax,” He says holding her arm in one hand and hovering the other one over her wound. It glows a soft and gently blue, and her eyes go wide, “So pretty…” The marks start closing quickly until their is nothing left on her skin. “Wow…”
Ella chuckles then gets a glint in her eyes, “How would you like to stay with Solas while Jarad and I go see someone.”
“Can brother stay?”
Solas sighs before nodding, “Yes your brother can stay as well da’len.”
“Yay! Uncle Solas can you show me more magic?”
Solas looks shocked for a moment before nodding, “If you would like.”
Jarad hands of Dilan to Solas, who looks shocked for a moment. He looks down at Lissa, “Your brother is an elf?”
She nods quickly, “Yep! My mother was an elf, but my daddy was a human, and his mommy was my mommy, but his daddy was an elf.”
Ella notices that her ears are slightly pointed, not a lot, but a little. She could easily pass as a human girl.
Solas hums to himself before rising from the bed, “Well, we shall see Ella and Jarad soon.”
Ella nods before giving a quick hug to Lissa, “I’ll be back soon, Da’len.” She hugs back tightly, “Don’t forget about me Auntie Ella.”
“I won’t, I promise. Pinky Promise!”
Lissa tilts her head confused, “What’s a pinky promise.”
'Do they them in Thedas? Well, they do now!'
Ella hooks her pinky with Lissa’s, “It is when two people make a promise like this. It is a special type of promise, so I have to come back.”
“Okay! Pinky Promise!” Ella stood up.
Jarad walks out the door, followed by Ella who mouths quick thank you to Solas who nods before making a magical bird fly around the room. The last thing Ella hears as she leaves the Cabin to join Jarad was Lissa’s happy giggles.
‘She is so adorable...I have to have a word to Cassandra about this Mawen...I want her gone, no I want her dead.’
Ella turns to Jarad who frowns lightly then nods, “We won’t let this stand.”
Ella shakes her head, “No, we won’t.” Then she leads the way back to the chantry.
Everyone around them swears they see a mother dragon going into protection mode when they see her.
“Woe be on anyone who gets in her way,” Whispers one woman to another.
The other woman pales before rushing to the orphanage, she has to get out of here!