A/N: So I've been playing DA:I for a while and got the idea to do this with a different version of an OC of mine for another fandom. She's usually a confident world-hopping magician who loves adventure - in a darker "reality", she's nothing more than a powerless girl who only dreams of grandeur and adventure. I'll be introducing her in this fic as a new person entirely, so you need not worry about being too confused. Regardless, I'd be glad to answer any questions and am open to constructive criticism.

Should probably add before anyone gets confused that my OC has ethnic origins that will account for a large amount of culture talk in this fic. It'll all be revealed as the story goes along, but just a heads up.

BioWare owns the Dragon Age franchise and all its characters...

...but all OC's are mine!

Inquisition: Otherworlder

A dull, throbbing pain coursed through the back of her head. Her stomach churned in slow, nauseating motions and her neck felt like a weight of lead upon her shoulders. Every limb and rib screamed with a tight, creaking soreness that made her feel a million years old. She was absolutely miserable.

A harsh female voice echoed through her skull, sending sharp pricks of pain throughout its furthermost corners: "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now."

The line of spit coagulating on her tongue threatened to dribble out of her mouth as she heaved a gaping breath to stay the nausea. Shut up...migraine...

"The Conclave is destroyed," the voice went on. "Everyone who attended is dead...except for you."

Dead...everyone...She immediately thought of her dogs; green lights in the backyard; the creak of a door against the wind. Her eyes flared open. N-no! They can't be! Her mouth poised to scream–

Her breath caught when she faced the sharp end of a blade.

A rapid hammering started up in her chest as the realization sank in. With a slow turn of her head, she found herself in a dank stone chamber, surrounded on all sides by these sharp bladepoints.

"I...I..." she stuttered. "Where...am I?"

"The prisons," the voice answered curtly.

Prison! She almost reeled back in shock, so out of place did that word seem – but when she tried to reach out a hand to steady her head, she found her wrists locked in tight iron manacles. "Wha..." Her heart beat faster and her breathing sped up along with it. "What am I – Why am I – Why am I handcuffed? I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Explain this." A woman with short, choppy hair took a step forward and roughly grabbed her manacles, yanking them upwards. The rest of her body followed along and she yelped when the side of her left foot flared up in pain.

But that did not compare to what happened in her left hand; first, a flickering heat built up in her palm and spread with a tingling, prickly sensation. A second later, her entire palm erupted with a crackling, electric energy that felt as though it would split her very hand in two. She screamed both in pain and fear and shut her eyes tight against the electricity, dancing in wild neon green hues.

"I can't!" she practically sobbed, and it was a wonder she even remembered to answer the statement levied against her in the first place. "Please, please stop it!" she continued, her voice quivering. "I'm afraid of electricity!"

The harsh woman threw her manacles back down and ignored her plea. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"I don't – I don't know what it is! Please, make it stop–"

"You're lying!"

"No," and she was truly sobbing this time. "I swear, I'm not..."

The angry woman made a tight noise in her mouth and the girl braced herself for a strike or whatever else was coming, just as long as it wasn't that scary flare of electricity again. Anything but that.

"We need her, Cassandra," a lighter voice then cut through the chaos. It was calm, assertive, and soothingly mellifluous. The girl opened her eyes a crack to chance a look at its owner. The woman she saw wore a purple hood over her head, but her delicate face and coppery hair were visible beneath the cowl. The woman looked down upon her and asked her, gently, "Do you remember what happened? How all this began?"

Remember...what happened...Her eyes flitted this way and that as she, in a panic, realized that she couldn't. Her thoughts were a confusing blur and the pain in her head was not helping.

"Calm down," the hooded woman instructed her. "Take a deep breath and try to think: what was the last thing you remember doing?"

The girl shut her eyes and followed the hooded woman's advice. Deep breath. In, out. Think. The last thing she remembered doing. A throb of pain in her head made her wince and the nausea rose into her throat. She forced it back down with a gulp of air and took another deep breath. In, out. She coughed at the end of the second exhalation and that simple cough was enough to make her limbs shake with weariness. She tried not to think about that. She tried to think, instead, of the last thing she remembered...

Sadness. Sadness was the first thing that came to mind. That soul-crushing, heart-wrenching, gut-twisting grief while watching Bilbo's round eyes stare at hers through the window of his new family's car as it receded down the driveway and off to Tennessee. She'd been sad when his other eight littermates found their new homes, but he had been the lovable runt who stayed with them the longest; he had been the one closest to her, the one she resuscitated after being accidentally suffocated by his mother...he was special.

Wait, that was too far back. That was...that was yesterday. Also the same day she'd stubbed and broke her pinkie toe, dammit. No, no, it was earlier tonight when all this craziness started. She remembered because that was when she came home from the hospital for X-rays after finally acknowledging something was wrong. That night, she'd slipped into bed with the pain of a broken toe in her left foot and the dull ache of longing in her heart.

She had been crying herself to sleep. Yes, it was coming back to her now. Laden with tears, her eyelids had grown heavy as she hugged her cylindrical body pillow tight. She'd been determined to have a good night's sleep after exhausting her pent-up emotions, knowing she had to savor the moment as much as she could before the next trouble hit her. Funny, she never expected it to be waking up in a dark stone dungeon...

And then the dogs had started barking. Her eyes flew wide open, chill dread seeping into her chest. She remembered thinking the neighbors would get upset and complain, which her parents would not take lightly. That train of thought soon devolved into worry of a possible escapade from the fence. Those were the two biggest reasons why she objected to making them outside dogs in the first place, but she was always chastised for voicing her worries instead of complacently agreeing.

She listened for snores from the direction of the master bedroom before daring to slip out of bed. With a careful movement, she gently slipped the injured foot into an orthopaedic shoe and strapped it on. Her drowsy gaze had been fixated while she worked on the white gauze wrapping her pinkie and ring toe together, a ghostly white line in the darkness. Then she rose and hobbled down the hallway, exerting extra effort to make the shoe's sole as silent as her bare foot.

Arriving at the head of the stairs, she reached a tentative hand for the rail and made her slow descent. She turned into a little corridor after reaching the bottom and entered the kitchen. She picked her way through the darkness, rounded the island and counter, and came to a windowed door in a corner of the dining area. She remembered flicking the switch next to the door on and off and watching as a bright golden light illuminated the deck before blinking out. The dogs weren't there, but the barking echoed from their kennels below.

Thus encouraged, she opened the door and stepped outside. The barking immediately assaulted her ears in full clarity as soft moonlight shone down on her from above. What struck her as strange was that it seemed green at the edges, but she dismissed it as a trick of the eyes. Beyond that, everything seemed fine. The warm summer night was gentle and soothing; frogs croaked in the creek that cut through the yard, crickets chirped merrily in the undergrowth, and the breeze sighed contentedly between the leafy treetops. The only thing out of place were the jarring voices of dogs.

Oh, dogs – they'll bark at anything! She strained against the railing and scanned the dark ground below, but saw nothing of interest. Meanwhile, the barks were growing louder. She pushed off the railing and slowly made her way across to the deck stairs to check it out anyway. But when she went down the first step, she finally saw what might have provoked them. It was a dim, pulsing green ball hovering midair...

A sound like splintering stone and crackling energy vibrated through the air. With one great burst of green light, she was suddenly thrown onto her back as though pushed by a powerful gust of wind. Her head knocked against the wood, rattling her teeth and jumbling her brain. Her eyes shut upon impact, and when she opened them again, the entire yard was glowing with bright green light – a bright green light that cut through the air like a luminescent scar.

She scrambled to her feet as fast as she could and clung to the railing for support. Her eyes watered as she directly faced this scar, shining so brightly it was almost like staring into the sun. She turned away and painful spots flashed in her eyes. The barking was now at a fierce staccato pace.

What is that thing!? she thought bewilderingly.

She recomposed herself and went down the stairs. The scar hung above her like a garish crescent moon, twisting and writhing in pulsing movements that threw dancing shadows against everything its light touched. When she reached the ground, the two Akitas stopped barking momentarily to run up to her, pushing their noses into her abdomen as if to tattle on this strange thing that had interrupted their sleep. She gave them cursory head pats and continued to look up at the phenomena, or at least the edges where the light was less intense, wondering what complex law of science could explain its existence.

An end of the scar bulged in its twist and then suddenly exploded, as if unable to contain an influx of whatever it was trying to contain; she shut her eyes again, remembering the uncomfortable light the first time it had done so, and when she looked back, the scar was larger than before, reaching closer to the ground and looking more like a giant smear of paint than a scar.

The dogs dispersed and took up their barking again, but were quickly silenced when a ragged branch of light burst out and caught one – the female – by the paw.

"No! Cixi!" she screamed. She stepped forward, stubbed her orthopaedic shoe against a pebble, and fell unceremoniously into the dirt; the injured toe screamed with sharp pain. Gritting her teeth, she shoved herself back up and hobbled-ran towards the dog. The light, coiled around the joint of the paw, began to drag the Akita with such a force that the other paws, digging into the ground, made deep dragging marks in the dirt.

With a launch of her good foot, she fell upon the trapped dog and held it tightly in her arms. With her weight against Cixi's, she was able to stop the light's pull, but only momentarily.

Cixi whimpered, big pleading eyes boring into hers.

"Shh, I know, girl," she said soothingly. "I'm here. Don't be afraid." Biting down on her lower lip, she pushed even harder against the strange gravity of the green light. Slowly but surely, they slipped out of its grasp. "Just a little more, girl. There, that's a good girl." These reassurances were for her as much as they were for Cixi. She needed her head clear of emotions, or she might panic and lose her grip.

After what seemed like an eternity, both dog and human fell out from the light's hold. Cixi ran under the deck stairs where her male counterpart stood waiting, his tail between his legs. Their human lay panting on the dusty ground, the incredulity of what just happened weakening her knees to jelly.

"Stay," she commanded them. "Stay there, okay? Don't..."

Then she heard the creak of a door above her followed by a rush of wind. I didn't close the door properly, she realized. A better solution unfolded before her eyes. I could get them inside, where it's safer. "Up," she commanded, using the word they associated with hopping into a car, and the dogs' ears perked at her voice. "Come on, up! Go up!"

When they didn't do anything, she crawled on all fours towards the wooden deck steps and beat her hand on the bottom step. "Come on, go up!"

Without a moment's notice, the two canines leapt onto the steps and ran until they reached the deck. But once there, they stopped, too obedient to enter the house without express permission. She raised herself onto her feet again and yelled out in her native language, "Đi vô! Đi vô nhà!" Go, go into the house!

Regardless of whether they still remembered that command after so long of being unable to come inside, she heard their paws shuffling against the kitchen floor a moment later and breathed a sigh of relief. Now it was her turn. She checked her foot to make sure it was okay and turned one last time to look warily at the strange light in the air.

Next thing on my list: calling the cops.

She turned back around and began to mount the first step. But before she could put her other foot on it, the light flared intensely from behind her and another crack and crumble of splintering stone vibrated against her back. Perhaps she shouldn't have, but she immediately whirled around to see what had happened. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

The light had expanded again, becoming so big that she could easily wrap herself in it with room to spare. Coiling verdant tendrils snatched out at the surroundings, sucking in twigs and pebbles and whatever else fell prey to the light's touch. She felt a tingle of warmth snake around her ankle and looked down to see a ghastly green tendril tightening its grip on her.

What the-

She had not the chance to finish that thought when she was yanked off her feet. Her hands clawed out at the ground, the dirt, the stones, anything she could get ahold of to save herself! But nothing was firm enough and she was only dragged faster and faster towards the strange green abomination. With a sickening lurch, she was hung upside-down from the ankle, and then the warm summer night disappeared around her in a bright flare of green.

A moment of weightlessness followed, dark and somber like that of deep sleep. If anything happened in that moment, she couldn't remember it. Then she received a rude awakening as she was deposited onto a hard, stony ground.

With a groan, she turned herself to the side and slowly sat up. Her eyes blinked haltingly as they attempted to adjust to her new surroundings. At first, she thought she had been dropped in the same spot in the backyard. She quickly realized as she took in the sickly green mist that something else entirely had happened.

She attempted to stand. "Ow," she hissed, and clutched at her left foot. She gave it a moment before rising again, this time more slowly.

Where am I? she wondered. Nothing but green mist swirled about her, obscuring her vision and teasing her with vague rolling shapes that threatened to come alive, but dissipated before they could do so. Besides the dim light of the mist, everything else was dark. She pursed her lips and took a step forward. The distant sound of a falling rock echoed from ahead and she tensed, wondering if it signaled the presence someone – or something – else.

"Hello?" she called out timidly. "Is...is anyone there?"

For a moment, everything was quiet. Then she heard a scattering of smaller rocks and a steady one-two beat of jogging footsteps. She stood stock-still, trying to gauge whether the sounds were heading for her or simply veering around her.

A distant shape soon became visible through the mist. She watched it carefully a first, thinking it to be an optical illusion. But when the shape continued to hold and traced itself into a man's profile, she knew it was no trick.

Should she call out to him? Was he coming to rescue her? These questions swirled in her mind as tumultuously as the mist before her, all the while the figure was drawing closer and closer. She gathered her courage and took small steps in his direction.

"Hello? Sir?" she called out again.

She could hear his breath now, huffs and puffs of air that came in rhythm with his steps. If he heard her, he did nothing to show it.

"Sir?" she said louder.

Again, he didn't respond. Things were quiet again, save for his breathing and running. She waited a while longer, hoping he would come close enough for her to call out again. But she waited too long and he suddenly burst through the mist, colliding into her. She yelped in surprise and stumbled back a step.

The man drew back and stared at her in shock, his bright blue eyes widening as though he'd just seen a ghost. His mouth made small stuttering noises, but they were nothing comprehensible. He shook himself a second later and resumed running, leaving her behind in the mysterious mists.

"Wait!" she cried. "Where are you going?"

But he never replied. His jog had also accelerated into a full-on run.

Her heart raced as she wondered why he looked so fearful, and why he had been jogging in the first place. He also seemed dressed for the Renaissance Fair, but that was of little consequence in such a strange and eerie place as this.

When the man's footsteps became nothing more than faint echoes, a new sound took up the emptiness. She listened harder and heard what sounded like the scuttling of tiny feet. Not too long after, a big mass of shadow began moving towards her. She drew back a step, unsure of what to make of it. And then she screamed when the first of the shadows came within sight, the light of the mists reflecting off its many beady eyes.

Giant spiders!

She turned tail and fled, going as fast as her injured foot would allow. First the green light, then the mist and the spiders; what was happening to her? How was it even possible? She screamed in fear again as a furry leg brush against her calf, and quickened her pace. She refused to look back, for fear of seeing the creatures too close for comfort.

And then she began to tire. A sense of doom overcame her and she knew she would fall prey to these giant spiders within minutes. She cursed herself for having a broken toe at such an inopportune moment and prepared to sink down on her knees so the creatures could take her. Whatever was going to come, she hoped it would come swiftly.

"Here!" a booming voice then called out, and she looked up to see where it had come from.

A woman, shining with a bright white light, stood like a beacon at the top of a stone staircase. She wore a great rectangular headdress and had her hand extended towards the girl–

"So you saw a man and a woman?" the hooded woman interrupted her.

The girl nodded. "The man was gone, and the woman reached out to me...I ran up to her as fast as I could, but then..." She blinked, frowning at the floor as if trying to read the answer from there. "That's all I can remember."

Cassandra, the one with the choppy hair, turned to the hooded woman with an exasperated sigh. "Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take her to the rift."

Leliana paused, giving the girl one last scrutinizing look before nodding at Cassandra and exiting through a door. Another burst of pain throbbed in her head as Cassandra bent down to fiddle with the manacles, the chains clanking against one another in an irritating metallic cacophony. When she was done, the girl's wrists were free to move.

Cassandra grabbed her by the arm and hefted her up. Her feet were stable, albeit a little shaky. The short haired woman aimed a suspicious eye at the orthopaedic shoe, though, and pointed at it. "What is that?"

"It's for my toe," the girl explained. "I...broke it."

Cassandra gave a tsk and bent down again to examine the funny-looking shoe. "Which toe?"

"The – the little one."

"Bandages," Cassandra commanded to the guards in the room. "I also need boots and some clothing."

"Yes, Lady Cassandra."

A short moment later, the items arrived and Cassandra ordered her to take off the orthopaedic shoe. The girl did so hesitantly, wondering what this gruff woman was going to do to her. When the shoe's straps were undone and the left foot was free, Cassandra began to tightly bandage the toes.

The girl winced as the gauze cinched against her pinky toe. "Ow! Please, not so tight!"

But Cassandra ignored her and her toes were soon wrapped in tighter-than-tight bandages, wound so thickly she could almost feel nothing when she placed her left foot down on the floor. Cassandra then tossed her the clothes and boots. "Change into these as fast as you can."

She caught the garments square in the arms, but the boots clattered to the floor next to her. "Are you taking me somewhere?" she asked Cassandra warily.

"Just do it."

Her tone did not sound like one to be trifled with and the girl promptly obeyed. With her back turned to the woman, she stripped off her pajamas and slid herself into a pair of breeches, a thick green tunic, and a glove for her right hand. When she asked Cassandra about the other one, she was told it was intentional. Okay...She wrapped a gray scarf around her neck as a finishing touch, and when finished, felt slightly weighed down by all the clothing.

It must be really cold outside, she reasoned, or I wouldn't need all this fabric.

And now the hard part...the boots. She slipped one onto her good foot easily enough but stared in apprehension at the left one, wondering what sort of pain she might subject herself to with such a narrow opening and tight space.

But Cassandra was waiting, and not wishing to incur her ire, the girl carefully enclosed her foot with its corresponding sock before tentatively picking her way through the boot's opening. It was an excruciatingly slow process, made even slower by her fear, and she could hear Cassandra sigh in relief when it was over.

"Finally," the woman muttered, and came over to her to tie her wrists back up, this time with rope. "Now follow me."