"Eat it! Eat it!"

  Anri's mouth twitched with a smug grin as he heard Sera's voice over the top of a heated battle. The dry, hot air from fire magic being cast, along with fleeting icy chills and the brutal clashing of blades, made his sprints faster toward the sound.

  "Andraste guide you!"

  He heard Cassandra roar and entered a clearing to see her shield-bash a muscly, bull-faced, and horned Qunari warrior twice her height and breadth in heavy armor.

  Fear rose when he saw the Qunari slam a two-handed greatsword to the ground, narrowly missing her head. Did the woman forget she was the Chantry's leader, the great hope for the South? She couldn't keep putting herself at risk like this. He needed her to live.

  "Cassandra!" Anri held his lone dual blade and entered the fray to block a blow aimed for the staunch warrior-woman's chest.

  "Anri, get back. We can deal with this!" She ordered him and gasped when he stumbled off-balance to fall on his half-arm.

  Anri cursed when he was sent rolling out of the way from a heavy-boot kick.

  "Amatus! Let us deal with them; take a break." Dorian loftily said through panted breath.

  Anri watched his dashing lover stand over him to protect him from oncoming spears. Static electricity tingled his cheeks as Dorian cast a spell that made his enchanter silk robes billow near his head. A wall of silver-blue light flared up before them to counter the blows and protect them from damage.

  Wielding his crystal-tipped mage staff with a grand flourish, Dorian repurposed the magical barrier to be an offensive attack, sending the Qunari warriors flying into rock crops with angst-filled cries.

  Tallis bellowed with outrage when she saw her warriors were either dead or too damaged to continue the fight.

  "This isn't over, former Inquisition." With a swift decision, Tallis escaped through a screen of smoke and was gone, along with the rest of the Qunari.

  "There, see? We dealt with them." Dorian nonchalantly said to Anri as he helped him up.

  Anri could sense the worry behind his words. Instinctively, he kissed the man's cheek to make him blush. "Thank you."

  His expression lapsed into a frown when he faced Cassandra. Her boyish black hair was covered with snowflaked dirt, and her heavy leather armor was cut and torn. Even her boots look like they would fall apart at their next steps. His frown deepened when he saw the old Inquisition chest emblem frayed around the edges and a bit of the emblem's sword tip torn so it looked blunt.

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  "Former Inquisition, huh? We almost lost our edge in this fight." He mostly said it under his breath.

  "Forget this fight; we almost lost you!" Cassandra snapped at him. "Did you think the Qunari would leave us alone after we averted their invasion?"

  Anri snapped back. "No. But you're the Divine. You can't keep going out and putting yourself in danger anymore! At least, I'm now a nobody to these people."

  Sera angrily approached Anri and jabbed his gut with her longbow. "Idiot! Our Jenny warned you they were watching the border for you. You go out and get caught anyway. Next time I tell them, leave this 'nobody' to the bloody bulls." She hastily added to the burly Qunari standing next to her. "No offense, Bull."

  The Iron Bull, a sight of a 6ft muscly horned man with his oily chest bared to show off scars. A leather strap ran diagonally across his pecs to support his pauldrons and half-metal armored arms. Unlike the unfeeling Qunari who had attacked them, Bull had a devilishly handsome smile and cunning brown eyes that appeared to keep note of every situation. Naturally, his ability to observe the obvious and hidden agendas is what had made him a strong pick for the Qunari outreach service known as the Ben-Hassrath. Although, outreach was a pleasant way of saying they used spies. When Iron Bull severed ties with his old life, he remained loyal to Anri and what the Inquisition had represented. Now with the organization gone, he wondered what Anri would do next. It was a core reason he decided to tag along with Sera and Dorian. When they had reunited with Cassandra and Varric along the way, he suspected it was something to do with their old comrade Solas.

  He sighed and shook his head, then calmly asked. "So, Boss, why are we back in the mountains to freeze our butts off?"

  "Yes, I wonder." A new voice entered the group, who was another redhead. Fortunately, she was a familiar face on their side.

  Leliana calmly approached the group with her footsteps light, so much so they barely creased the ground. Of course, as a master assassin, her ability to move undetected and be a shadow was honed instinct. Like most of Anri's friends, she wore her usual Inquisition light armor garb from the old days.

  "I guess it's not to play a game of Wicked Grace." A roguish and well-dressed dwarf entered with an oversized crossbow holstered to his back.

  "Varric, Leliana, I'm glad to see you, finally." Anri cordially greeted them and acknowledged another dwarf and elf donned in old Inquisition scout armor. "Scout Harding, Charter, thank you for coming here. I know you all took a risk."

  "Finally? You took your sweet time distracting the Qunari watch. At least we got the thing you asked us to get." Varric tossed a suspect-looking black pouch toward Anri's good arm, who caught it with no trouble and instantly pocketed it.

  "Right. So the gang's all here. What's next? I can't keep Widdle hiding in the bushes for long." Sera complained as she returned her bow to her back holster.

  "Is it safe to come out?" A chirpier voice whispered from the bushes. Sera gave the okay, which had a bubbly dwarf with red hair scrambling up to Anri to check out his half-arm. "Even with the Anchor gone, there's still faded energy there." Her eyes glowed when she saw it was mostly healed and (in her vision) the forearm end glowing with power.

  "Rein it in, Dagna. Let me take you all to a secret headquarters." Anri flashed them a cocky smile, which had Cassandra grumbling.

  "Come on, Seeker, we know you missed him. And the gang's all here." Varric teased her with his form of reassurance.

  The motley crew of former Inquisition members calmly made their way through the mountain forests toward the direction where it had all begun.