When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Archdemon

They had fought darkspawn from one end of Thedas to another; Una would have thought she and her team were experts at it by this point. But this was unrelenting. They seemed to jump out at her from every corner, and the taint surrounded her, crawling inside her body, letting her know they were everywhere.

There were few citizens to be found. Most of them had barricaded themselves inside the Chantry or fled, their belongings strewn across Denerim as they went, and for that, Una was grateful. The fewer tainted creatures the darkspawn left behind, the better for everyone.

She and her team stopped for a rest in the shadow of a building, taking long drinks from the canteens they carried. Una was so tired from the battle at the gates and the effort of making it this far into the city that she didn't know how she was going to continue on to Fort Drakon and fight the Archdemon, too.

Suddenly Leliana gasped, and Una looked over to see her friend staring up at the sky, her face tense and worried. Following Leliana's gaze, Una saw the Archdemon. It was swirling erratically in the sky, making sudden dips and rises and turns. Frowning, she narrowed her eyes, trying to see what was making it act that way. She saw a dark speck on its back, and gasped in her own turn.

"What?" Alistair asked. He was shading his eyes with his hand as he looked up.

"I think ... I think it's Riordan. On the Archdemon's back."

"Maker," Alistair breathed.

They all stood without moving, watching the dark speck move on the dragon's back. It came loose and freefell for a moment, and Una's heart stuck in her throat. Then the figure caught itself on a wing, causing the Archdemon to shriek in rage and pain.

And then the figure fell, hurtling through the sky. Una couldn't watch; she turned and pressed her face against Alistair's shoulder, regardless of the darkspawn blood that covered his armor.

There was a silence, and then Morrigan said, "He has failed."

For once, Alistair didn't bother to correct the witch, or to argue about her tone. His arms around Una, he said hoarsely, "It's up to us now."

It was. As they had both somehow known it woud be. Una let go of him, looking at Morrigan, who nodded briefly.

"Look," Leliana said. "It's injured."

And so it was; the dragon was flailing around in the sky, its wing torn by Riordan's last act. As they watched, the Archdemon settled heavily onto the roof of Fort Drakon.

"It's down," Alistair said. "Let's get it done."

"After you, my liege," Una said, and he smiled at her briefly, acknowledging how things had changed, before leading the way toward the fort.

Fort Drakon was overrun with darkspawn. Fortunately some of the armies they had collected were catching up at that point, so the four of them finally had some help. The elves were particularly effective—swift and agile, their arrows sailng through the air and finding the vulnerable places in the darkspawn with ease.

The mages were coming along as well, with the dwarves as their shield. The troops from Redcliffe were mostly still at the gates, but that was fine by Una, as long as they kept the darkspawn off the backs of her team. The dwarves and elves remained around the entrance of the fort and on the first floor.

One of them, Legion of the Dead to judge by his armor, saluted Una and said, "We'll keep any more of 'em from comin' up, salroka. You just take out that Archdemon."