The Dragon and The Hawke

Marian Hawke was scared, more scared than she had been in her entire life, but she would not falter. She had faced blood mages, crazed apostates, mad templars, and the deaths of her entire family, she had not faltered, and so she would not now.

Even as she threw lightning at the massive spider demon that approached her, and the Inquisitor, Alistair, and the rest of them fled towards the great rift behind them, the Champion of Kirkwall knew she was doomed.

She watched with grim acceptance as they escaped, as the rift closed, as her chance of freedom was lost to her. It was here that her attention wavered, for but a second, but that was all the monster needed to take her.

There was a massive flare of pain along her entire left side, and Hawke was thrown a hundred yards through the twisting green air of the fade, to land against a wall that became her floor, and stare up at the monster that advanced on her.

But her task was complete, and Marian Hawke was not a moron, so she ran. As fast as her feet could take her, she fled from the monstrous nightmare that once guarded the great rift at the Grey Warden's fortress. As she passed a line, one that was unseen and unmentioned, the beast stopped trying to catch her.

It took her many minutes to realize this, though, but when she thought about it, she supposed that it made sense. The behemoth of a demon was fucking stupid, and its master had been destroyed, scattered to the ethereal winds of the fade. Its only orders had been to stand by the portal that was no longer there and wait to be summoned.

Now there would be no summoning, but it did not know that, and it did not know that its master was dead. So the old orders would be obeyed, and Marian Hawke escaped with her life. Well, she escaped as much as one can when trapped in the realm of dreams.

And so the Fade became Marian's home for a very, very long time.

Years later, who truly knows how long, she had certainly lost count, she managed to stumble into a new section of the Fade, one that had not existed before. Or maybe it had, and she simply had not reached it. In this new piece of the fade, she found an odd mix of physical and ethereal, one that had not been present since her time with the inquisitor.

She also found a girl there, or more accurately, she found a woman. The strange plain of snow didn't tell her much of where she was, what realm she had stumbled into, and after following the woman, she really hadn't expected to suddenly be in a tent in a desert.

When she had finished looking around in total and complete confusion, her gaze returned to the woman, and saw that the woman was gazing at her, ignoring a big guy and a baby.

At the same time, the question asked was, "Who are you?"

Dany did not know what to think of the strange woman who stood before her. She did not bear the look of a Targaryen, she had never met her before, and there was little chance that she would meet her in the future. The woman was as pale as she suspected Jorah would be if he did not spend every day in the baking sun, and had eyes the purest blue she'd ever regarded.

The woman, for the curves, the voice, and the gait could be held by nothing else, shrugs after a second, and tells her, "Marian Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall, you?"

"I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Mother of Dragons," Dany replies, as strongly as she can.

"Mother of Dragons? That's an impressive title, how'd you get it?" Marian asked her

"I birthed three from their eggs, and they are my sons," Dany tells her, sure that telling a dream about her life was not a terrible decision.

Marian nods in appreciation, "Well that's impressive. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone raising a dragon before. I'd have thought the threat of getting burnt would be a good deterrent."

"I am of House Targaryen, and we share the blood of the dragon. Fire does no harm to me," Dany tells her

"Oh, that's gotta be nice," Marian nods. After that, they fall into a moderately uncomfortable silence before Marian finally asks, "So, where are we?"

Dany furrows her brow, and for some reason she has some trouble grasping where she actually is. Looking around, she sees her lost husband and son, and her eyes widen, "I am in a vision, in the House of the Undying…"

"Where's that?" Marian asks, tilting her head. Before an answer can come though, the desert and the tent start to fade.

Daenerys looks around, and finds that instead of standing free, searching for her lost children, she is instead chained up, and Pyat Pree is staring at her with glee.

"Ah, welcome back, your grace," The Warlock cackles insanely

"Warlock," Daenerys snarls at him, dragging at the chains holding her, "What are you planning?"

"I plan on keeping you," Pree chuckles, "And your beloved children."

Dany stills, and looks around, and there, behind her by only a step, are her dragons. They gaze at their mother, waiting for her to act, for her orders. Turning back to the Warlock, she demands, "Why do you intend to keep us?"

"Your presence, and that of your dragons, increase my power exponentially!" Pyat Pree tells her, stepping closer to run a thin finger over her face.

Dany turns her head away from his touch, and sees a very confused looking Marian Hawke blinking at the Warlock. Before the Mother of Dragons can say anything about her presence, or ask for help, the woman from her vision declares, "That's not how magic works!"

Pree spins, and sees the woman in plate and leathers, and it is clear that he has no idea where she could have come from. He steps away from the Dragon queen and raises a hand, and begins to cast a spell.

Dany's eyes widen at the possibility of the woman being killed because of her inaction and shouts, and her dragon spew forth fire. Pyat Pree screams as he catches flame, and starts flailing around, trying to put out the burning cloth and flesh that the dragons have encased him in.

The Mother of Dragons watches as he starts to run in circles, and shares both a sick pleasure and a terrible horror at the sight of her enemy flailing and failing to snuff out the flames. There is a crack, and lightning strikes the Warlock down before the flames can completely snuff out his life.

Looking again to the side, the same side the lightning had come from, Dany sees Marian standing with her gauntleted right hand extended. Small discharges of electricity travel between her fingers as the magic seems to settle. Once she is sure that the man is dead, Marian lowers her arm, claps her hands, and says, "Well, that was bracing!"

Stepping over to Dany, she starts fiddling with the chains, "Whelp, let's get you out of these."

It takes several minutes, filled with cursing, clumsy fingers, and a few statements about going out of class that Dany really doesn't understand before the chains fall away and she is free. She smiles at her savior before turning her attention to her children, and starts working to free them.

With both women working together, the first two dragons are freed in about the same amount of time that it took to get Dany free. By the time they start working on the third, there is a shout down the hallway, and Jorah as well as the last of her Bloodriders burst into the room.

The old knight is out of breath and looks around the room with a steely determination that is not often seen, but the wind is taken from his sails as soon as he sees Dany and another, unknown, woman working to free Drogon from a chain around his neck. Sheathing his sword he steps up to them and asks, "Your grace, are you unharmed?"

"Yes, thank you Jorah," Dany nods, still working at the collar around Drogon

"Who's he?" Marian asks

"Ser Jorah Mormont, Lady…?"

"Marian Hawke," Marian replies, turning to Dany she asks, "So, you're a big deal, then? You've got a knight and some shirtless guys coming to your rescue."

"They are my bloodriders," Dany tells her, "And yes, I am a Targaryen, and the rightful Queen of Westeros."

"Huh, how bout that," Marian muses, then gives a triumphant sound as the collar around Drogon's neck releases. Smiling, she steps back, "Haha! Well, that was fun!"

Jorah looks at Marian and asks, "Where do you hail from, M'lady? You look to be of the North, but I've never heard of a house Hawke, before?"

"Well, I'm from Fereldan, not the North," Marian corrects him, "And I'm actually part of House Amell, but my mother married an apostate instead of some puffy Orleasian."

One of Dany's bloodriders says something in his native tongue, and Dany nods. Turning to her new friend she says, "We have not heard of any of those places before, where are they on a map?"

"No idea, honestly," Marian shrugs, "It's been Maker only knows how long since I got trapped in the Fade, so my homeland could be lost to me forever!"

"The Fade?"

"The realm of dreams and magic," Marian tells her, "We were just in it, you know, before we wound up here with the bacon."

Looking to the charred corpse of Pyat Pree, Dany nods, "So the you I saw in my vision was the actual you?"

"Yep," Marian nods

"How is that possible?"

"No idea."

"Very well," Dany nods, and lays her hand on the dias her dragons lay on. The three climb onto her and she declares, "We shall try and figure it out after we have dealt with Xaro."

"Who?"

"My husband."

"He do something to you?"

"No, but he owes me a fleet, and I am tired of Qarth."

It turns out, Xaro had in fact done something to Dany, and the Mother of Dragons buried the man and a woman who betrayed her in a vault. Marian didn't really find it all that fun, or beneficial, but she didn't say anything. Her silence did not have much to do with her supporting the way the man was killed, but more to do with the fact that she was being loud in other ways.

The Bloodriders of the Khaleesi learned how to properly loot a palace. Marian was calmly walking through the place, and as she had done countless times in the past, she opened books, pocketed jewelry and silverware, and killed anyone who tried to stop her.

By the end of the day, Marian had a fairly substantial pile of gold on top of the money that Dany collected to buy her own ships. When all was said and done, and the boats were off from Qarth, the two women sat in the captain's cabin with the dragons and talked about their respective lives.

All in all, it was a very productive first day out of the Fade for the former Champion of Kirkwall, and the only living mage in the known world.