Well I knew I probably wouldn't be able to resist writing something before the game came out.

This story is spoilery for the gameplay trailer!

Inspired by the iPod shuffle challenge, except with Pandora. Today's song, Hazy by Rosi Golan

The rip looked wrong—felt wrong. Lieutenant Gould squeezed the hilt of his sword for its comforting solidness. What were they going to do? He'd been tasked with guarding the outside of the building where important work was going on. The Chantry and the mages of the rebellion had finally met to discuss peace. Now... now this thing had happened.

He was a soldier, dammit, not some lyrium-addled templar. What was he going to against demons and mages? That rip was like nothing he'd ever seen before. He knew about the Fade of course; all people went there to dream, but no one—except mages maybe—thought about it while awake. But there it was, rippling like a heat hallucination. Except it wasn't a hallucination. Gould had been tasked with watching it while his squad looked around for survivors.

All they'd found so far were bodies of those from the Chantry and mages both.

Mages. Gould inhaled slowly through his helmet. What if this wasn't an accident; what if the mages had come here with only the show of talking peacefully and then had killed everyone?

But... wait, they'd found plenty of mage bodies. Were they so lost that they would kill themselves in order to get at the Chantry?

"Lieutenant!"

Gould turned his eyes from the wavering Fade for a moment. Commander Carson was running up to him.

"Any activity at your post?" she demanded as soon as she was within speaking range.

"None, ma'am," he replied. "If there were any survivors, they haven't come this way. I don't like the look of that rip, though. Demons liable to come pouring out any minute."

She nodded. "We'll have reinforcements soon. Messenger bird just arrived. Seekers."

Gould exhaled in relief. "That's something then. Maybe we should—"

Carson went stiff, hand whipping to her sword. Gould whirled.

"Maker's breath..."

Something was moving in the rip. For a moment, the image seemed hazy as if the figure had paused for a moment on the threshold, then an armored leg stepped through from the Fade into the real world. It was a person, not a demon, and they were armored as if for war...

The figure took one look at the two soldiers watching them, then collapsed onto the rubble of the courtyard.