[FIC] The Devil Takes Care of His Own: Lachlan

[alaterdate]

Title : The Devil Takes Care of His Own [AO3]
Series: Dragon Age
Characters: Lachlan Surana (HOF)
Rating: General
Word Count: 999
Summary: Lachlan makes the tough decisions.
A/N: Part 7/8

Despite all his powers, Lachlan could not be in two places at once. Word of the darkspawn army splitting their forces came too late to him in Amaranthine. The bulk of their numbers marched on Vigil’s Keep, only a small part kept pace into the city. A diversion. One that wouldn’t have even mattered had the damn nobles let him station more guards on the farm roads. A decision had to be made. Lachlan closed his eyes as he listened to Captain Aidan’s solution. Set fire to Amaranthine.

“Any city can be rebuilt, lost battles cannot be rewon.”

If the darkspawn took the Keep and killed the Wardens there, it would take too long to receive more reinforcements from Orlais. In the meantime, the darkspawn would triple their numbers, create more broodmothers, start a blight without a high dragon. Everything Lachlan had worked for in the past six months would come crumbling down. Not to mention, he would lose half of his personal retinue.

Setting fire to the city would stop the creatures from fleeing or diverting to the Keep. At worst a few more people died, at best they only lost their homes.

The quicker path to victory over the Architect and his rogue ilk was clear. Lachlan idly turned the ring on his finger round and round like a cog to match the wheels of his mind. He could not waste any more time dawdling. Another six months in Amaranthine cleaning up messes meant missing his best chance to find Morrigan. The ring was only supposed to work one way, but he could feel her on the other end of it, even if only faintly. Lachlan opened his eyes.

"Burn it to the ground. And kill the Architect's messenger."

Aidan nodded then rushed away to make Lachlan's orders reality. The Warden-Commander drew his sword, he and his party would still have to fight their way back out of the city. The process would also open the path for refugees, whether or not they survived past the opening was their own problem. He called Nathaniel, Oghren, and Velanna back to his side. Not one of them uttered a single word about abandoning the city. They already understood what it took to win.

At the gates the stench of rotten flesh permeated the air. Piles of darkspawn laid at the feet of the Wardens. Ones they killed on their way in and fresh ones they hacked down on their way out. Darkspawn blood mixed with the muddy ground water like a bootlegged Joining brew. The land would never be the same. Just past the gates a rumbling caught their attention. A fully armored ogre bounded up the hill towards them.

"How the fuck did they forge all of that?" Oghren shouted.

Lachlan clicked his tongue against the back of his teeth. If the darkspawn were hiding something like that up their sleeves he had made the right decision.

"Bringing it down," Lachlan called out and switched his sword for his staff.

Everyone in the vicinity scrambled even further to the sidelines. Force magic wasn't his forte, but he had just enough mana to push violently on the ogre's legs and send it toppling head first into the mud. The rest needed to be taken care of by his cohort while he built his mana back up. Oghren rushed in without a second thought, swinging his axe wildly against the head of the beast. Velanna cast a barrier on him before using the powers of the earth to tie the ogre down with a tangle of roots. Nathaniel began sending volley after volley of arrows into the beast, expertly missing the enthusiastic dwarf even without the barrier's help. The ogre struggled against its bonds, but Lachlan used the dregs of his power to help keep it subdued. He didn't like to do it, but he'd down a flask of lyrium later if he really needed it. The ogre finally stopped moving after dozens of arrows wedged themselves in the gaps of its armor and its skull was thoroughly crushed in. The city dwellers around them cheered, they had been saved from the creature and they would live. That would have to be enough because the fires finally flared up throughout the city and choked their cries of elation into those of horror. Flaming orbs flew through the air, landing on thatched roofs and dry paneling, Aidan would go only one degree short of blowing the place up. The Wardens paid no mind and continued their trudge back to Vigil's Keep, they still had to make it before the darkspawn breached the gates. Townspeople fled frantically and only Nathaniel tried to urge them in the opposite direction of the Keep. A wet slap drew Lachlan's attention away from watching the humans scurry like rats. One of them had fallen into the mud by his feet, a child by the looks of it. He sighed and lifted the young girl from the muck, her blonde hair almost completely obscured by the ash and dirt of the day. He used a sleeve to wipe the slush from her face.

"You didn't get any of that in your mouth did you?"

She shook her head, no. Her innocent eyes looked up at him with the fervor of a supplicant. Like he had saved her. And he could not stop the constriction of his chest. Somewhere out there a child he was partly responsible for was growing up without him. He didn’t want that child to live a life where they could not rely on him just as this girl had. Children were never a question in the Circle. The Chantry didn’t want mages to have them and even if they did, they certainly weren’t allowed to keep them or raise them. In the Circle his life and his body never belonged to him. Now the world sat at the tip of his fingers. He decided.

“You’ll be alright then. I promise.”