Disclaimer: Dragon Age: Origins characters, names, and places belong to BioWare and what-not. Sinniralin is mine though, born many, many years before DA:O was released. I'm just writing this because I'm a huge fan of origins and there's a huge lack of FemPC/Leliana (Femslash) fiction. :)

A/N: This chapter is 'M' rated for language, violence, gore and adult theme, but the rest of the story will be T-rated, and a few chapters might be M-rated, but there will always be a small warning in the A/N.

I would like to issue a warning for sensitive persons since this chapter contains – not described or detailed, but it does deal with the issue of sexual abuse (as it is depicted in one of the origins stories). If this unsettles you I suggest you perhaps read the next chapter, I will be posting a summary – which naturally will not include the part of abuse, at the top of the next chapter. So you won't be missing out.

Sinniralin is technically not a PC, but just a character that I added. So this is not following the blight from the Grey Warden's POV, but from Sinniralin's. The reason for doing this - I guess, is because I wanted to create a new character that wasn't nessecarily one of the Warden's, or the companions, but came in with a new fresh story adding to the group. It all sounds very good in my head, but we'll just see how it turns out, right? :)

This is a Sinniralin/Leliana fic. So yes, FEMSLASH. Yay! Also there will be a Cousland/Alistar pairing. So everyone gets a little of what they like. ;)

I do hope you enjoy – and if so review it because it is always appreciated! ;)

The Contract

"Move one inch and I'll have you dead before you can even blink."

The elf stared at the sharp blade pressed to her throat. The man wielding it was wearing fine silverite armour. His cold hazel eyes were framed by wavy black hair and his long fringe was plaited into two plaits, keeping it from getting in his eyes.

"Loghain, what gives me the honour?" The elf said where she stood naked in the water's edge of the lake.

"That would be Teryn Loghain Mac Tir for you." He said coldly.

"Very well Teryn. I must admit I'm impressed you found me." The elf stated.

"I drove the Orlesians out of Ferelden, what makes you think I wouldn't be able to find some renegade elf?" He spoke through his teeth.

"I'll give you that one." She admitted, still not moving.

"So, this is the elf who murdered Arle of Denerim's son?" A grey-haired man with a large nose asked sizing her up.

"Little, weasely Howe." The elf muttered, recognizing him from the estate she had once worked at. He would come and visit every now and then prying into the personal affairs of the family she worked for. She never liked him.

Howe walked up to her and backhanded her across the face. The blow was dealt with such force her head snapped to the side making the sword draw blood from her throat. She barely flinched, but felt her whole side burn from the blow of his knuckles. That's going to leave a mark. She thought to herself licking the blood from the split on her lower lip.

"So, you've found me and I'm not yet dead. I suppose I should ask you what it is you intend with me. Hmm?"

Loghain stared at her his eyes lingering on her naked, voluptuous breasts. She could see the appreciation in his eyes no matter how much he tried to mask it. Though Teryn Loghain was not known for dallying with women just for the sake of humiliating them – much unlike Vaughan who she had left in a pool of his own blood a few weeks ago in Denerim.

She'd never seen the dark-haired teryn before, but she had been part of the raw and tough underworld long enough to know who she was dealing with. Loghain was one of the few nobles whose house had never been hit by thieves or bandits because of the teryn's reputation.

It did not exceed him she noticed. He was focused and organized which was probably one of the reasons it was he who drove out the Orlesians. Another reason must have been his intelligence and mind for strategy. He'd been smart enough to lay low until she relaxed, thinking she was quite safe. He had weeded her out by mere patience and determination waiting until the moment she set foot in the lake.

Not only wasn't she wearing her armour or her shadowcloak, but the element of water incapacitated her ability to use magic. It was a perfectly set trap. But she wasn't dead so she assumed the teryn had something else planned for her.

"Well what do you want of me? Since you have not yet killed me I assume you want something, now let me know or be done with it." She said eyeing him impatiently.

"Oh, it thinks." Howe mocked her earning himself a sneer from the teryn.

"Yes. That is unheard of." He agreed. "Very well, I shall accommodate your wish." He still hadn't lowered his sword and the Arle had moved too far away for her to grab his short sword. "As you may well know you are wanted for the murder of the Arle's son, and believe you me when I say that death would be merciful in comparison to what they intend to do to you."

She quirked her eyebrows tauntingly.

"You would live the rest of your life in the dungeons, your only purpose to satisfy the soldiers and noblemen who come to stay at the estate. "

She almost laughed at him. She wanted to ask him what he thought Vaughan had done to make her kill him in the first place. Then again, the details of her being ravaged by Vaughan and his men after they had caught her smuggling lyrium to the underworld in Denerim was perhaps not something the arle liked to talk about. When Vaughan was done with her he threw her in the dungeons where she spent a good couple of weeks before being able to escape. Stepping out from the dungeons she vowed to kill Vaughan. One of the guards had a vial of lyrium in his pouch. It was all she needed, the magic bursting to life within her after she downed it.

A good size of the arle's home guard lay dead when she finally reached Vaughan. He was assaulting a young elven woman when she burst into his room. She saw the terrified, broken look in the girl's eyes, and before she had time to react the magic shot out from her mouth. Vaughan froze on the spot and she darted - with her magic enhanced power, across the room grabbing the nobleman by his hair hurling him across the room. He crashed into a bookcase. His thugs came storming at her, but she pulled her magic from deep within sending it out towards the advancing thugs. The first thug was sent sprawling to the side, she ignored him for the moment darting towards the second one, flipping in the air, driving her sharp blades from the front of his neck to the back, his head falling to the floor with a squishy thud. The third thug who came at her jabbed his long sword at where she stood only to find her cloak imploding and in a mere second she stood hovering above Vaughan on the other side of the room and his sword cut through nothing but thin air. In a weak effort to save his better the thug lunged at her. He stopped mid-air and she turned around look at him. She brought up her hand in front of her face moving it slowly to her left. To his horror he felt his face turn in the same direction. She kept moving her hand until the head wouldn't move any further. Then she flicked her hand. There was a snapping sound and then the thug who had hung floating eerily in the air fell to the ground. The first thug stared at her and took to his feet bustling out the room in fear.

Vaughan's eyes fluttered to life. He snickered when he saw her. "I see my little toy has been well used." He referred to the cut and bruised face from the beatings and abuse in the dungeon.

"I should sever the source of your evil, but I'm not that strong." She hissed at him. He laughed her in the face. His taunting laughter triggered the memories and images flashed before her head. She raised her arm in rage.

"No, wait, wait!" He cried out. "Wait! Let's… let's make a deal! How about you let me live and I'll give you a bag of five hundred gold?"

She stared at him incredulously before she burst out laughing. It sounded strange to her, frenzied, and broken down. "You wish to live?" She laughed.

"Yes. Name your price!" Desperation was growing in his voice.

"I don't want your money. I'll let you live. You have to live with what you've done here." She said and stepped away from him lowering the short sword she picked up from one of the guards.

He was about to start laughing, but before he had time to open his mouth she swung and released the sword from her hand and it buried itself in his throat.

Only moments after two elves had stumbled in to the room, a young boy and girl. She ordered them to take the girls and go back to the ailenage. They had done as she said and she had escaped the estate and left the village the same night, but not before she saw the young woman being recruited by a shemlen in a fancy armour to join the grey wardens. She shook her head and took off from the ceiling she had been perched on, becoming nothing but a dark shadow in the night.

Now this teryn had caught up with her and threatened to throw her back into the dungeons, unless…

"It's either the dungeons awaiting you, or… you could help me settle a… shall we say, a minor problem?" He said, and for the first time she saw something greedy glint in his eyes.

"I'm listening." She said.

"They Grey Wardens." He said. "They betrayed the king and now the renegade group travels through Ferelden trying to recruit a rebel army. It has become rather a nuisance… I am well aware of your earlier works so I propose this: you find the wardens, you follow them and report back to me, and then you get rid of them. In exchange I will give you your life and freedom back."

Sinniralin wasn't sure if she was supposed to jump for joy or kick the sword out of the man's hand asking what the catch was. She'd been working long enough in the underworld to know there was always a catch. Always something more to find out.

"As a token of my intentions to keep the deal you have the documents for your release stating you are a free woman." Loghain flicked with his two fingers in the air and a young woman wearing a commander's armour came running up to him holding two rolled up parchments in her hands.

This was too good! Spying on some people and then kill them off. It was what she did best! "Very well." She agreed.

Loghain nodded, and lowered his sword. "Tell the men to move out." He told the young woman. She signaled for them to move out and the large army turned on its heal with a loud clinging of chainmail. They were followed by the teryn and the weasely arle leaving Sinniralin standing naked in the dark night.