A/N: Hey, this is the second time I've written this Author's note! As of August 2011, I am rewriting this story from the start, and (hopefully) I'll manage to finish the rewriting process. If I do, I'll post up a final chapter at the end to simply confirm that all chapters that need rewriting have been done so, and some may only need a few tweaks here and there. You'll know the rewritten chapter's because I'll say 'rewritten' at the beginning of each one, but due to the length of these chapters and my other stories that need rewriting, there'll probably be one re-written chapter a week. At best. Also to note; at the time I posted this originally, this was the first story with Tamlen surviving the initial cave-meeting and leaving the clan with Mahariel. The plotline is pretty much Tamlen as a Grey Warden with Mahariel. She finds him in the cave and they both go with Duncan. Lina's part at the beginning is rushed and repeatedly saying 'and' because it's reflecting her hectic thoughts to try and find Tamlen whilst simultaneously struggling with the dark feelings that the taint is imposing on her. It won't be in this tense in the later chapters, too. Reviews to the re-written chapters are appreciated, as always!

Lina Mahariel

They're sighing heavily. One of them is crying, wiping tears from bright eyes, and another one of them is panting from his exhaustion as he follows her. Lina Mahariel is gasping for breath, an unfamiliar darkness coursing through her body despite Marethari's claims that it's gone. Merrill sniffles in the warm humidity of the cave, and although Lina would like to think she's crying out of concern for her clanmate, she knows that it's from the gas trap that the mage set off again in the middle of the ruins. Fenarel switches his blade for his bow, no longer content with charging directly into the fray of darkspawn whilst he's so exhausted. They can only travel deeper into the ruin, a dark shadow bearing up inside Lina and drawing her to the shadows; it comes along with a vicious, uncharacteristic urge to turn around and tear the throats from her friends.

Lina wonders just how quickly they'd be able to kill her if she attacked them, and with an inward gasp of horror she berates herself for thinking such a thing; these are her friends, and although she'd never been as close to them as she had been Tamlen, it's no excuse for her thoughts. In an attempt to block out these thoughts, Lina focuses on her heavy breaths and completely ignores Merrill's call for her to slow down. Lina refuses to; Tamlen lies in these ruins somewhere, and she'll readily face a thousand darkspawn whilst unarmed rather than hesitate for a split second and lose the dark pull that is drawing her towards the room with the mirror.

Funny, she thinks sarcastically, how all hell breaks lose because of a mirror, and despite that she'll run back there anyway. Tamlen is alive, she's certain of it –she swears she can feel him- and even if he is dead, she'll not leave without a body.

They reach the mirror room quickly, Lina stopping and finding Merrill and Fenarel tumbling towards her with a barrage of curses, startled by her sudden stop. There's a shem standing before the mirror, but Merrill introduces him as her saviour before Lina can impale him with one of her Dar'Misu's. The human rambles and rambles about how Tamlen can't possibly still be alive, that destroying the mirror is the only way to stop the taint that's starting to take over the ruin. (And why does she feel a feral snarl well up inside of her at that? This taint, it's still within her, leading her to the room where Tamlen should be, but she can't see him!)

Merrill and Fenarel go to grab her arms when her heels squeak on the blood-ridden floor as Lina tries to flee towards the back of the room, but she's feeling herself being pulled there, and it must be where Tamlen is, else she'd feel fine. A string of utterly foul elven curses stream from her lips as she struggles, and with her left hand she grabs for the skinning dagger in her belt and lodges it into Fenarel's forearm, a dark instinct taking over and willing her to leap towards the slowly-backing-away Merrill. Lina ignores it, as Fenarel goes to grab her again despite his wound, and she has to escape that grasp in order to keep her hold on the pull that seems to be slowly leaving her. She has to find the tainted presence on the other side of this pull, and she knows it's no darkspawn since Duncan has killed them all.

Duncan steps towards her with an aura of annoyance, and Lina gives in to the strange, dark cord attached to her body. Her heels squeak again on blood-spattered marble, and she finds herself jumping through the frame that once held the godforsaken mirror, over the Bereskarn body and down the tunnel that has been carved into the ruins.

She's running right past the corpses, nearly trips twice on her way down, and finally she's skidding to a halt in front of thick, unruly vines. She doesn't even need to spare a glance to know that they're too thick for her to cut through, so she tries to climb up near the top and slip through the thin gaps. Despair tugs at her when she feels Duncan's arms around her waist, tugging her down whilst shouting at her about there being no hope for her friend.

(But he's so much more than that, even if she'd never told a soul. She refuses to be the one left alone for her life; the one everyone looks at like she's a widow, with filthy looks of pity in their eyes, all because the one she wanted had disappeared.)

The thought makes her head hang, and it is that which makes her look down. She gives a cry of relief when her eyes lock with a messy mop of dirty-blond hair and the frail body of her clanmate. Duncan notices it too, and without a second thought he drops her from where she's clinging to the upper vines, leaving her to fall unceremoniously to the floor. Pushing their arms through the vines, they both try to manoeuvre Tamlen into a position where they can pull him through. Fenarel pitches in with his sword, hacking at the vines, whilst Merrill freezes them in turn so they're easier to shatter. It works, and Lina watches as Duncan leans into the gap they've made, slips one arm under the elf's knees and one under his back, and lifts him up.

For a moment, they simply stare. Lina is nearly buckling at the torrent of emotions running through her; anger, annoyance, worry, despair, heart-stopping fear. She wants to both hit him and hold him, never let him go again because three –nearly four- days without him seems terrible when they've never spent more than six hours apart in the last ten years. They still share the tent that they've had since Lina was four and he five, much to the disapproving minds of the elders of their clan. (But nothing happens in that tent, they're still simply the best of friends and nothing more, and creators does it annoy her.)

For a moment, a dreadful moment, Lina wonders if they've found only the body of her friend. The same thought is running through the minds of Fenarel and Merrill, but all doubt is erased when Tamlen gives a weak moan of pain, half-conscious but alive.

Lina leads the way out, a triumphant smile on her face despite the worry boiling within her.

She'd been waiting outside the tent for three whole days. Duncan had watched her with interest for those three days, contemplating the likelihood that anyone should still be able to walk after six days of being tainted. He's been interested in Tamlen too; Mahariel had been treated by a powerful keeper almost immediately, and Tamlen had not, yet he was still alive somehow. Duncan's eyes switch to Lina when she all but springs up from her stool, and it is not hard to miss exactly what it is that has caught her interest.

Tamlen emerges from the tent they share, looking ill, thin, horrible, messed up and not at all happy. He looks worse than Mahariel does now, but he steps into her hurried embrace and simply sighs, thankful for the fact that he's alive and able to wrap his arms around her. It doesn't surprise him that she's the only reason he was even found; he'll be having words with Merrill and Fenarel about their eagerness to leave the ruin whilst he was still in there. Marethari steps from the tent behind Tamlen, looking even worse than Tamlen and equally as exhausted as Mahariel, but it doesn't overpower her relief at managing to save two of the clan's hunters and children. Granted, all three of them feel as if they're standing on Falon'Din's doorstep.

"Easy, I'm fine." Tamlen mutters to his clanmate as she all but breaks his ribs in a hug, although the cough that follows is a contradiction. He sounds raspy, but Lina ignores it as she pulls away from him, stands at a respectable distance and watches as Marethari and Duncan move to discuss a permanent cure for the both of them. Lina only smiles at the muttered "thank you" that comes from Tamlen, refusing to acknowledge it as she knows how hard it is for Tamlen to say so. He didn't even need to say it aloud; she'd heard it loud and clear in his embrace. Instead, he follows as she leads the way to a beckoning Marethari.

"We have been discussing your cure. You will not like it." Marethari is blunt, a sad look in her orbs as she locks eyes with Lina's midnight blue irises and sees the dark shadow of the taint still inside her Da'len. Duncan takes over.

"My order is in need of help, and you two are in desperate need of a cure. You have both proven to be somewhat resistant to the taint, and I am certain that if you agree to become Grey Wardens, my order will gain two well-trained recruits, and you will be cured. If you stay, the taint will sicken and kill you, or worse."

It's the 'or worse' that sways Mahariel's mind.

"So… We need to become Grey Wardens?" Lina asks. Marethari nods sadly, and Duncan shifts his footing, crosses his arms and gives them both an evaluating look that makes Lina feel as if he can read her like an open book.

"No, absolutely not." Tamlen answers sharply before Lina can even utter a syllable. He protectively takes hold of her upper arm as if to make a point, but it's mainly because of the fact that he knows her mind and her answer that he does so.

"Is the clan actively sending us away? This is our home, our family." Lina asks quietly, but Duncan answers the question that was meant for Marethari.

"I cannot express my sadness at sending one of our sons, and one of our daughters, off into such danger, but if this is what the Creators intend for you, then meet your destinies with your heads held high. No matter where you go, you two are Dalish. Never forget that." Lina nods at the wise words, Tamlen shakes his head despite the dizziness, and Duncan sighs.

"Very well, Duncan. I am honoured that you would pick me to help your order." The human smiles at Lina, and gives her a bow.

"I am glad that you have agreed. It has been a while since a Dalish has joined the Grey Wardens, but they have always carried out their duties with immense skill and respect." The man then looks to Tamlen for his answer, but the dirty-blond elf is looking at Lina as though she's sprouted an extra head.

"What? Lina, this is our home! You're prepared to leave it, just like that, because of the word of a shem?"

"Tamlen, think about it; if we don't go, we will die. No question about it; I can feel the taint inside me, and I know you can feel it inside you too. Don't make me drag you along with us." At those words, Tamlen cocks an eyebrow at her, closes his eyes for a moment, and then lets lose a sigh.

"I always said you'd end up like a damn flat-ear. Very well, I will go with you, but only because you wish it so. Under any other terms, I'd rather die a Dalish." Marethari and Lina both smile at him for this, before the former puts her hands on his shoulder.

"Come then, Da'lens. Before the creators guide you from us, let your clan embrace you once last time."