Chapter Text
Lizzy woke to the sound of the bells signaling that the village was under attack. She jumped out of bed and as quickly as possible, put on her clothes and boots.
“Mom?!” she shouted through the house.
No response.
“Shit!”
Her mother had left for the celebrations on the marketplace after the Breach had been closed earlier. Her father had died from disease a year ago.
“I’ve got to get to the chantry,” Lizzy told herself. She grabbed her heavy coat and a backpack and sprinted downstairs. “Just don’t waste any time. Grab some food and a blanket and get the hell out of here. You’ll probably have to spend the night there anyway.”
Outside the distant shouting grew louder. Whoever was out there was getting closer. Lizzy didn’t think twice. She ran and bolted through the front door onto the street. There was fire not far away, as well as the clanging of metal against metal. The cities soldiers were already hard at work.
People ran up the street towards the chantry and Lizzy followed them. She had just rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks. The enemy soldiers were cutting down the villagers and guards alike. One of them had sunk his sword deep into the body of a farmer she knew. He slumped off the sword lifeless. The soldier looked up at her and smiled. There was a strange quality to him, a red unhealthy tint to his skin. He moved towards Lizzy, blade held high to strike. She was frozen, couldn’t move from fear.
The soldiers blow missed her. Chancellor Roderick had grabbed the attacker’s arm and yanked it to the side. For a moment the soldier was too baffled to react, but then adjusted and the blade found its target, sinking itself into Roderick’s side.
The next moments were a blur. Everything happened so fast that Lizzy could barely make out single events. The chancellor was on the ground, holding his bleeding wound. The man who had attacked him fell, red all over his neck. A young man with blond shaggy hair and a large hat was sheathing his dagger and began to help Roderick up.
“Thank you, Roderick,” Lizzy said, breathless.
She came to his side to help him walk as well, but the young man objected and told her, “It’s all right. Go to the chantry, there you’ll be safe.”
She looked at Roderick, who nodded. “Listen to the fine young man.”
She took off without another glance back.
The chantry was filled with people seeking shelter. Her mother however, was nowhere to be found. Lizzy was starting to get worried. She had done exactly what her mother always told her if anything like this should ever happen. She had gone to the chantry to take shelter. But where was she?
Every time the doors opened, she hoped it was her mother, but it never was. She waited and waited and her hope began to dwindle. She was so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed that chancellor Roderick had entered and was talking to an elf with black hair, and Commander Cullen.
She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but after a while the black haired elf left and the people followed Roderick through the chantry. They were evacuating Haven. They were leaving. Lizzy followed them with her head held low.
They set up a camp. Everyone helped. And then they waited for the Herald to return.
Haven was buried in the avalanche. They had seen it from the camp. It was massive and now their village was gone. Whatever hope Lizzy had had was now dead. Her mother wouldn’t miraculously show up in camp or anywhere. Lizzy had buried her with the avalanche.
She remembered Roderick and went to find him. It didn’t take long. The healer was leaning over him, treating his wound, but he had lost a lot of blood. She knew he wouldn’t make it.
“Roderick?” She sat beside him as the man looked up. “Thank you for saving me again. I owe you my life.”
Roderick gave a weak smile. “No need to thank me, child. I only did what was right.”
“How’s your wound? Does it hurt bad?”
He shook his head. “It’s all right. The healers have done all they can to ease the pain. Not long now before I’ll go to the Maker’s side.”
“I’m sorry, Roderick...” she whispered. She didn’t know what else to say. To tell the man he’d be all right would be a horrible lie and he knew it.
He gently took her hands in his and told her, “Be strong. You’ll get through this.”
Lizzy bit her lip and nodded, trying to hold back tears. They remained like this for a while before the healer politely asked her to let him rest.
Lizzy stalked the camp, tried to find anyone she knew, but found none of her friends or her parent’s friends. She wanted company to distract her from her own loss. She kept asking herself if she should have tried to get to the marketplace, look for her mother, to find her either dead or alive there. She didn’t know what would have been worse. Having the reality of her dead body slapped into her own face, or this. No one who wasn’t here at camp would have made it out of Haven, not after the avalanche. In her heart she knew that her mother was gone, but her mind had the slightest bit of hope and she hated that. She wanted the death confirmed. She would have to wait until an official report of the casualties’ was made public days later.
She returned to her camp cot and curled up on it, crying herself to sleep.