Prologue:

The Dalish Twins

Brecilian Forrest, 9:15 Dragon Age

"She has the gift." Taeran mumbled to himself, still in shock. "She has the gift! Lirelle, come quick!"

Hearing the desperation in her husband's voice, she quickly grabbed her bow and quiver, and went to find him.

"What is it, Taeran?!" Her husband looked absolutely ecstatic, a bright smile illuminating his face.

"It´s Ariawyn! She has been blessed by the Creators! She has the gift!"

"What? That is impossible! No da'len has ever showed signs this young. She's only 3 summers old, vhenan."

"I'm telling you, emma lath, I've just seen it. She was playing with Lyaera, when a small bird fell from its nest. She gently cupped it in her hand and I saw the blue healing light come from her hands and go into the bird. I felt the energy being drawn from the Beyond!"

Lirelle could not believe what she was hearing. Her own daughter, with the gift of the ancient elves? Sure, it was possible, since her husband possessed magic himself, but it was still rare among her people. They were no longer as powerful as they once were and not many elves were graced by the Creators with the powers of old. If they were, they began to show signs after their sixth year of life. If her husband was right, then it meant her daughter would be even more powerful than Taeran.

"I – I just… can't believe this! I must see this for myself."

Taeran sighed. He loved his wife, but she was stubborn. If she wants to see it for herself, he thought, I will show her. Her pulled a small knife from his robes and sliced his palm open. He heard Lirelle gasp and called his daughter, "Ariawyn, come!"

From behind the trees, a small girl came running up, her brown curls bouncing with every step she took. As Taeran looked at his daughter, he couldn't help but notice how everyday she looked more like his wife. She had the same brown hair, the same round, chubby cheeks, the same light skin, the same button nose, but most of all, the same beautiful almond shaped brown eyes. He watched as Lirelle crouched and opened her arms, and little Ariawyn jumped into her mother's arms, laughing.

"Lethallan, where is your sister?" he asked.

"I don't know!" the small girl responded between giggles, an impish look on her face.

All of a sudden, another small girl jumped from the trees above his head, onto his back. This one, unlike her sister, was the splitting image of himself, with her milky white skin, strange reddish brown hair, and sky blue eyes. "Boo!"

"Lyaera, get off your father's back. You could have hurt him, or yourself! And what did I tell you about climbing?"

"It is fine, emma lath. Da'len will be da'len, like they should be."

"Papae, you're bleeding! What happened to your hand?" Lyaera asked.

"Good of you to ask that, lethallan! I cut my hand with my knife."

"Why would you do such a thing?" He nearly laughed as he saw a quizzical look on his daughter's face.

"Because, da'len…" he said, while crouching low enough so the child could get off his back, "… I wanted to show Mamae what your sister did to the bird. Ariawyn, do you think you could do to my hand what you did to the bird?"

"But, Papae, I don't know what I did to the bird… I just touched it and it was better."

"Come, lethallan. I will help you"

Lirelle put down her daughter and watched her go to Taeran.

"Now, Ariawyn, I want you to close your eyes and breathe. Relax, lethallan. Place your hands on mine. Now, I want you to will my hand to heal. Yes, you heard me…" he said at Ariawyn's puzzled look, "Will it with all your strength and it will happen."

"How can you will something?"

"Well, it is like making a wish. Wish it really hard and it will happen."

"Oh…" was Ariawyn's only answer. She closed her eyes in concentration, her face scrunching a bit, and Taeran immediately felt the Veil thinning, energy being drawn from the Beyond and blue light emerging from his daughter's hand. He felt his own skin beginning to mend itself, marveling at his daughter. "Do you believe me now, emma lath?" he asked his wife.

"It is amazing! She really has been blessed by the Creators!"

"Yes. Come now, let us get back to the clan. Tonight, we feast to honor the Creators and thank them for this wonderful blessing bestowed upon us."

"Papae! It is too early! I'm tired!"

Taeran knelt on the ground to be able to look at his daughter. "Ariawyn, it is never too early to learn. Is it?" He laughed as his daughter replied that indeed it was too early. "Lethallan, you have been given a gift. You have been chosen by our Creators to help us carry the knowledge and traditions from ancient times. You, my daughter, have been chosen by the Creators themselves to lead us one day."

"But I thought you were our leader. You are the Keeper…"

"I am, lethallan, but—"

"And Marethari is your First, so why are you training me?"

"I am training you, lethallan, because one is never too young to begin learning. There are spirits in the Beyond who are evil, and wish to use you as a gateway into our world. By training you to master your power, I am also teaching you to protect yourself from them. Now, let's keep walking, we have a long way to go. I want to get to the eastern part of the forest soon, da'len. There is a clearing where we can practice without disturbing anyone"

Before they could get to the clearing, however, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of armed shemlen.

"Well, what do we have here?"

"It's one of them Dalish. Look at them's ears and that one's tattoos!"

"Papae, who are they?"

"Hush, Ariawyn. You are not welcome here, shemlen. Leave us be and go, or you will suffer the consequences."

One of the shems – their leader, it seemed – immediately burst out laughing. "Oh, no. I think we'll stay. We're really likin' this forest of yours, and were just looking for one of your camps to pay you a friendly visit, right boys?! Lucky for us, you found us first, knife ear."

"Ariawyn, run." he ordered. The young girl, sensing the danger, ran and hid behind a bush. One of the thugs tried to grab her, but failed miserably and fell on his face. Taeran drew his staff. It was a beautifully crafted ironbark staff Master Illen had given him when he became Keeper, with runes of protection and elven incantations carved onto the shaft. Realizing he was outnumbered, he summoned the sylvans to life and ordered them to attack the shems.

Three shems in front of him moved to attack, but he blasted them with a cone of cold, freezing them solid. He absently noted that if his wife were here, she would have shattered them with one well shot arrow. He then threw a fireball at an archer, while the sylvans grabbed shems with their branches and effectively squeezed them to death, or bashed them repeatedly against the ground.

He failed to notice, however, that the leader of the crew snuck up behind him, and before he could react, felt the man's dagger pierce his back. He grunted in pain, and then screamed when he felt the bastard pulling out the knife. He fell on the floor, his vision going blurry. It was becoming difficult to breathe, and he realized the dagger must have punctured his lung. He heard Ariawyn's distant scream, as if she was miles away, before feeling a boot on his shoulder. The bandit kicked him, effectively turning him over, and then knelt and grabbed him by the collar of his robes. He was saying something, Taeran realized, but he didn't understand him, could not make out what the man was saying. He knew, however, that this man could not be left alive. He would protect his clan with his life, if he had to. He summoned one last spell, a lightning bolt that electrocuted the shem and killed him instantly, stopping his heart. Knowing Ariawyn and the clan was safe, he could finally rest.

Ariawyn watched and when all was silent, the last of the bandits having run away, and the trees had fallen asleep again, did she come out. She went to her father's side, and saw a dark crimson liquid pooling beneath his sleeping form. Blood?

"Papae?" She knelt down next to him and touched his shoulder. "Papae, wake up. They're gone now." She shoved him harder, but he would not wake. "Papae! Wake up!"

Tears began flowing down her face, and she angrily wiped them off. She was confused and scared and she just wanted to get back to the camp. Why wouldn't Papae just wake up?!

"Papae, do you want me to heal you again? That wound on your back? If I heal you, will you be okay? Papae! Papae!" Ariawyn cried, summoning a healing spell. "I wish Papae would heal. I wish Papae would heal!" she kept repeating, but Papae would not heal and would not wake.

They ran as fast as they could, hot on the blood mage's tail. This is why he had joined the order, this is why he was willing to lay down his life, and the life of any mage. It was all to protect the innocent people of Ferelden. His mind was much clearer after the retreat in Denerim; he now remembered his purpose in this life.

As they approached the heart of the Brecilian Forrest, the brighter the phylactery glowed. Until suddenly, it stopped glowing. He growled in frustration and signaled his men to come to a stop and be quiet. From a distance, they heard wailing in the wind. They began running and stopped when they reached a clearing, where they saw a small elven child, crying and desperately trying to heal a dead elf.

They all stood frozen, just watching as the small elf continued to cry over the dead body, summoning wave after wave of healing spells.

"What shall we do, Knight Captain?"

"Split up. Ser Hector, take three others and go after the maleficar. He must be found and killed." He responded, handing Hector the phylactery.

"Yes, sir." And he was off immediately.

"And what of the child, sir?" another Templar asked.

"She is a clearly a mage. We shall take her back to the Circle at once."

"Yes, sir, Knight Captain Greagoir."

Lirelle looked at the sun's position. It was high noon, and her husband was still not back with Ariawyn.

She found Ashalle and asked her if she could look after Lyera. Then she went to Marethari and told her if she was not back within the hour with Taeran and Ariawyn, to send a group of hunters out to look for them. She grabbed her bow and quiver, as well as her daggers, and set off in the search of her husband. She knew they were going to train in a clearing in the eastern part of the forest.

When she got there, she saw the roots of trees up in the air, some scorched from a fires long since put out. There were corpses everywhere, shemlen's corpses. Her heartbeat quickened when she saw no sign of Ariawyn and then… in the middle of the clearing… no, it couldn't be… surely it must be somebody else, but as she approached the body, she knew it was him. Her legs gave out as realization hit her like a bucket of cold water and she screamed, a sound so terrible and filled with so much grief, it caused all the birds to take wing and flee.

Her husband was dead.

Author's Note: Hello! First of all, thank you for reading this prologue! Sorry if it was a bit angsty or graphic, I guess I got carried away… oops! Anyway, this is my first time writing fan fiction and I have been sitting on this story for months, but didn't have the nerve to post it until now! I hope you enjoy it and review, but be kind! Like I said, it's my first time writing hehe.

This story is a DA:O novelization, but with lots of twists on the cannon, but hey, that's what fanfiction is all about right? Anyway, you were warned.

This prologue is dedicated to my good friend Kateriel79. If you read this, thanks for giving me the final push to post this, and for your support. For those of you who don't know who she is, look her up and read her story "ALWAYS", it's amazing!

With all that said… thank you for reading!