Originally posted at the Dragon Age Kink Meme.

Prompt:

So, that mage quest sent them 1 year in the future, right?

Let's imagine it did the opposite, and sent them 10 years in the past-right when the future Warden Commander of Ferelden was attempting to save Redcliffe Castle from demons, and comes across Quizzy + Dorian instead.

Ships, no ships, friendships, Inquisitor whoever, anything goes. I just want glorious time-traveling goodness from the Inquisitor and the Warden.

bonus points:

- The inquisitor and Dorian join the Warden's team, at least temporarily

- the inquisitor FREAKING OUT because omg that is the ~Hero of Ferelden~ and omg that's King Alistair and also THE ARISHOK

- the inquisitor and Dorian trying to play it cool but are actually totally not cool, not at all, and the Warden is suspicious (maybe thinks blood magic?)

- the inquisitor petting Leliana's hair and just being in awe of how awesome and sweet young!Leliana is

- one of them (either the inquisitor or Dorian) being REALLY BAD about not telling them anything about the future and the other one is constantly like "omg why don't you just ANNOUNCE that we're time travelers ANDRASTE'S TITS"

- romances? idk. Or matchmaking. Maybe the inquisitor sees that f!not Cousland is torn between Alistair and Leliana and pushes her towards Leliana, knowing that in the actual future, she chooses Alistair and gets her heart broken. Or maybe f!Adaar crushes hard on Sten? Or DORIAN AND ZEVRAN OMG.

extra bonus points:

- They went to the dark future first-they ended up in the warden's time while attempting to get back to their *actual* time.

Zarvora Adaar's last sight of the dark future they had been sent to was of Leliana standing there holding off the Venatori and demons. Her friend and spymaster, looking three times her age, with an iron expression on her face as she made pincushions out of their enemies. Of the many things that had disturbed Zarvora on this little 'trip', what had been done to Leliana was far and away the worst one.

Her first sight of what should have been her own time was of Leliana, looking impossibly young and relaxed, putting arrows into a group of Shades with the same brutal efficiency she had displayed before. Leliana was wearing the same tight leathers that Zarvora herself usually favored, with two daggers strapped to her back. Her attention was too focused on the Shades to have noticed Zarvora, thankfully, and the Vashoth rogue turned to look at Dorian. He looked as stunned as she felt, checking their surroundings and shaking his head.

"Blast, we went too far," Dorian said in an undertone.

"How far?" Zarvora asked in the same undertone.

A stomp and clatter drew both of their attentions back to where Leliana was standing. She smiled radiantly at the three other people who came to stand besides her. One was clad in templar regalia, blond haired and broad-shouldered. He had a shield strapped to his back and a sword in a well-worn scabbard at his side. The other warrior was, to Zarvora's shock, a Qunari with no horns. His skin was a darker leathery gray than her own, and his white hair was bound tightly against his scalp. She barely had time to contemplate who and what he was before the third person came into view- a human woman, dark-skinned and dark haired, wearing mage robes and carrying a rather unpolished staff.

"Ten years, I'd say," Dorian replied. "In the middle of the Fifth Blight."

That's impossible. The words never made it to Zarvora's mouth, as the quartet had finally noticed that they weren't alone. It was rather disconcerting to see Leliana's bow pointed at her - although the expression on the Orlesian's face was finally one that was familiar to Zarvora.

"What are you doing here?" the mage at the front of the group asked. "How did you get past the demons?"

"Perhaps this is the mage who struck down Arl Eamon," the templar growled. "That Jowan did say that another mage was involved."

"I can assure you, we've just arrived," Dorian said. Zarvora shot him an annoyed glance. She knew the mage had a glib tongue, but what kind of story could they come up with that wouldn't get them killed on the spot?

"Which makes the question 'how did you get past the demons' all the more relevant," the mage said.

"What my friend meant to say was that we've just escaped from captivity," Zarvora said. "The mage wanted to turn my friend into an abomination. I wasn't about to let that happen."

"You are Tal-Vashoth," the hornless qunari said. His voice was a low growl and seemed to vibrate down through Zarvora's bones.

"I am Vashoth," Zarvora said, a bit more defensively than she'd intended. "I have never followed the Qun."

"A Vashoth protecting a mage from Tevinter," Leliana said. Zarvora controlled her impulse to jump upon hearing the familiar voice. "What an unusual combination."

The other three looked at Dorian again, as though seeing him for the first time. Zarvora let her hands fall down to her daggers again.

"My homeland and I are not on the best of terms at the moment," Dorian said airily. "As you might have guessed from the fact that I'm, well … here."

"Of all the things…" the mage said, shaking her head.

"Let's put it this way. We're in the wrong place at the wrong time." Definitely the wrong time, Zarvora thought wryly before continuing. "We don't intend you any harm, and we'd be happy to help you kill demons. Is that good enough to get us moving forward, for now?"

The qunari and the templar looked to the mage for her judgment. After a moment's pause, she nodded. "It is. For now. I'm Shimari. This is Alistair, Sten, and Leliana."

Zarvora nodded. "I'm Zarvora. This is Dorian." A moment later she cursed herself for not giving a fake name, but it was too late - and would she have remembered to answer to it? Would Dorian?

"Let's go, then," Shimari said. The four of them started forward in a battle formation. Zarvora's movement forward was halted when Dorian grabbed her sleeve.

"Just because it doesn't seem to have sunk in yet," Dorian said quietly, "that's a Leliana who's never met us traveling with the Hero of Ferelden, the King of Ferelden, and the Arishok."

Zarvora stared at him before swearing, softly and profoundly.

"That's about the right reaction," Dorian said, shaking his head. "I wish I knew what had gone wrong with the spell. More wrong is probably the better way to put it. Damn it, Alexius."

"We don't have any time to figure it out now," Zarvora said. "And we'd better keep moving if we don't want to look suspicious. Again."

"Right. Yes. Let's go kill some demons."

By the time they were done with the demon possessing young Connor Guerrin, Lady Isolde was dead and Jowan was keeping his mouth shut on everything that wasn't essential to save his own life - and so, there wasn't really anyone to contradict the harebrained story that Zarvora had desperately thrown out to keep Shimari from killing them on the spot.

(She would have done it, too. For all that she appeared compassionate towards her friends, in battle she was as ruthless and determined as any mercenary Zarvora had ever encountered.)

A grateful Bann Teagan had pressed rooms at Redcliffe Castle upon Shimari's entire party, including one for Zarvora and Dorian. Shimari had indicated that she would like to speak with them at some point in the near future, but that everyone deserved a rest at the moment. Zarvora hadn't protested.

"Can we get back?" she asked Dorian as soon as the door to their room closed. "Maker, we're in the past. This isn't like that awful future where if we just get back to the right time, we won't have to worry about screwing anything up. We were supposed to fix things, not make them worse!"

"You don't think I know that?" Dorian snapped, then shook his head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have … you are absolutely right that we could make things worse. Unfortunately, I can't get us back right now. My grasp of this time magic is nowhere good as Alexius', and throwing the spell out there blindly would, in all likelihood, throw yet another wrench into this whole mess."

Zarvora let out a long breath and nodded, reluctantly. She knew he was right. "So we're stuck for now."

"For now," Dorian repeated. "And we have to do our best not to interfere any more than we already have! We have to stay out of the Hero's way while she unifies this part of Thedas against the Blight. We're not in any of the tales, so we need to keep it that way."

"Shouldn't we just try to distance ourselves from her?" Zarvora asked. "Find somewhere quiet where you can work on the spell in peace?"

Dorian sighed. "I don't think she'll let us. The Hero is known for having collected any and all help that came her way. Like it or not, we now qualify as 'help'. If we try to leave, it will make her suspicious, and we can't give away that we're from the future!" He paused. "Alexius, you fool."

Zarvora shook her head and sank down on one of the two beds in the room. "Dorian," she said, "how did the Fifth Blight end?"

"The exact manner is a closely-held Grey Warden secret, from what I can gather," Dorian said. "But as far as the general story - the Hero slew the Archdemon at the Battle of Denerim. Afterwards, King Alistair and Queen Anora were left with the unenviable task of trying to put the country back together. The Hero arranged the marriage, you know, and there were rumors that she and Alistair were lovers during this period."

"What was Alistair's claim to the throne?" Zarvora asked. "There must have been one, or else the Hero wouldn't have felt the need to put him there. I remember that Anora was the previous king's widow."

"Cailan, yes, and Alistair is his half-brother," Dorian said. "History agrees that it helped keep the country stable. Noble enough to satisfy the Bannorn, but also one of the two Wardens who helped stop the Blight. I gather Anora wasn't too keen on the idea, but it let her keep the power she'd grown accustomed to."

Zarvora tried to imagine what Shimari had gone through - would be going through? Technically, at that moment, it hadn't happened yet - when she decided to arrange her lover's marriage. She couldn't imagine ever making that choice to let someone she loved go for what was arguably "the greater good". Her parents were still very much in love with one another, which had been their primary reason for defecting from the Qun.

"Of course, we're not supposed to know any of that, because it hasn't actually happened," Dorian continued. "And Shimari Amell isn't the Hero of Ferelden yet. She's a Warden. And did you know that your spymaster traveled with the Hero?"

"I did," Zarvora said. "She told me that it was a vision from the Maker that prompted her to leave the Chantry and get involved. She didn't say much about the details, though."

"I suppose that's for the best," Dorian mused. "What we don't know, we can't affect."

Zarvora sat in silence for a moment, and then grinned. "We met the Hero of Ferelden."

"A shining example of a virtuous mage in the South," Dorian said, returning the broad grin.

"And the King!" Zarvora continued. Despite her anxiety about being stuck in the past, she was starting to get excited. "Before he was King, that is."

"We can say, oh, I remember when he was just a bumbling ex-Templar," Dorian said with a laugh. "But it just adds to his charm."

"Careful," Zarvora said. "The Hero might not appreciate it if you tried to seduce him away from her."

"The Warden," Dorian corrected sternly. "If we must use a title for her instead of a iname/i, let it be one that won't give anything away."

"The Warden," Zarvora agreed. "Maker. At this point … she's like me, Dorian. She's someone who's getting caught up in events larger than herself. I wonder if she feels like I do? Like, why are all these people looking at me to make decisions? At least she was chosen to be a Warden." She held up her left hand, and gasped. "Dorian! It's not glowing!"

Dorian peered at the mark and stroked his chin in thought. "Well. The scar on your hand is still there… but the Fade energy isn't. Probably for the best. We don't want to have to explain why you have a glowing hand."

"But … does that mean the Mark is gone?" Zarvora's heart was thumping in her chest. She'd never asked for it, yes, but she was suddenly finding that she didn't really want it gone. Who would close the Fade rifts, if she couldn't?

"May I?" Dorian brought up his own hand, glowing a dark violet with his own magic. Zarvora nodded. The violet energy engulfed her hand. Sharp slices of magic pricked at her skin, in a sensation that bordered on uncomfortable.

"It's… not gone," Dorian said after a minute. "Well, it is, and it isn't. What I felt was sort of … an echo. I think that if we can manage to get back to our own time, the Mark will still be there. But since the Breach hasn't happened yet, and there aren't active Fade Rifts everywhere, it makes sense that the Mark would be … let's say dormant."

Zarvora nodded. "That does make sense. Thank you, Dorian."

"You're quite welcome," Dorian replied. "You're being rather calm about the whole situation. It's good to see that you have a sensible head on your shoulders."

"Only because freaking out would be counterproductive," Zarvora admitted with a laugh. "Besides, as you said-"

"The Hero of Ferelden," Dorian said at the same time as she did. They traded grins.

"Well, I think that's about all the excitement I can handle for one day," Dorian said. "Or perhaps for one year, though I doubt I will be getting that chance."

Zarvora grimaced. "I'm not sure it's wise to say things like that…"

"What, relating to time? You're just being paranoid," Dorian said with a laugh. Zarvora thought it might have been forced, but regardless, she wasn't going to pursue it. She, too, felt exhausted, and was only too happy to bid him a good night and fall into her bed.