Probabilities
The Sand Giant was a vast mountain before them. A sandstorm obscured its head, a storm of time distorted its upper body, and its lower body was continually being made and unmade. It did not walk across the plane; instead, there was a shift, and the entire plane moved, bringing the mountainous being to them. It was like the sea shifting and bringing silt to settle on a distant shore.
Varric put up a thick shield of darkness, and Ardyn's vine battle staff and battle robes added to it. The wall of black before them became studded with perfectly rounded crystals and laced with fine vines. Large flowers bloomed along the vines and began to suck in sand like a black hole swallowing all matter around it. The sands moved to the blooms in vast spirals, draining the massive form before them and the plane itself.
The Sand Giant raised a hand, and time stuttered. Its vast form changed, starting at its head, and it became a deep blue crystalline form. As it transformed, there was a sound like ice shifting across a mostly frozen sea. The change seemed slow, but it was actually an almost instantaneous transformation. The sandstorm at its face calmed and parted, and vast blue crystalline eyes gazed at Varric and Ardyn. In their depths, time moved in myriad fluid ways. All things within their gaze froze and began to be sucked into the vacuum of time.
Ardyn's hair rose of its own accord and gently pricked both Varric and Ardyn. They both started as if being forcibly awoken from a long night of deep dreaming. They acted in unison. As one, they moved back, putting distance between themselves and the gargantuan being, and threw the dark wall toward it at the same time.
The wall of darkness, crystals, and flowered vines hit the Sand Giant with a tremendous crash. The entire plane shook, and Atina and Seraphis were thrown back further from the fight. Varric sent out a dark web to catch the two members of their cohort. Atina reached out to Seraphis and Varric's webbing at the same time; they jerked to a halt, stabilized, and rose higher into the skies—still wanting to help their companions with the threat.
The round crystals of Ardyn's battle robes cracked the Sand Giant's new crystalline skin and embedded deep into it, some reaching its core. The flowers drilled into it and began spewing their insidious pollen, and both the flowers and crystals took bits of Varric's darkness with them.
The Sand Giant staggered for one moment and stabilized in the next. Its giant form rocked as it fought the invaders within its body. Static legs formed and became like tree trunks rooted to the white sands of the plane. As it tried to reorient itself, Varric raised his arms, thick and shadowed in darkness, and began to cast a spell of shadow. Ardyn's runes instantly went forth, and a magic circle of power and intent formed before them. Varric's spell shot through the center of the magic circle; it tripled in strength and struck the Sand Giant in its face.
Its face shattered—except for one eye. That eye glowed a deep azure, and the shards of its head froze and then were sucked back into place, reforming it. Varric and Ardyn nodded at the same time and moved around each other three times, their magic overlapping and lacing together.
The Sand Giant opened its mouth and raised its hands. Atina and Seraphis watched as a sandstorm, roaring with blue streaks of time magic, engulfed Varric and Ardyn. Atina and Seraphis's eyes went wide, and their minds buzzed as they began to frantically think of a way to help.
The storm that surrounded Ardyn and Varric existed along different timelines. Instead of merely slowing down or speeding up, Ardyn and Varric felt their senses divide among different probabilities. Their spell was ready, but they did not know which timeline the Sand Giant truly existed in. All the different Varrics and Ardyns looked to each other.
They would need a light to shine from the right timeline. Ardyn closed her eyes and opened her soul tethers to Atina and Seraphis—all of the Ardyns did.