It was all she could do to keep running. As she did, she squinted through the darkness at the glowing figure on the hill ahead that she was frantically making her way towards. An emerald glow surrounded her as she climbed as fast as possible, the dust swirling into her eyes. Her shoulder length black hair kept falling across her face, constantly causing her to push it out of her eyes. Then, she heard it.

A noise that filled her with dread. A clicking, scratching noise. Unable to stop herself, she whirled around to see that she was being followed by countless giant spiders. Terror gripped her; her foot slipped in her haste and she scrabbled on her hands and knees as fast as she could.

The figure had bent towards her now, the light was so bright she still couldn't make out the persons face, but now she was close, she thought that perhaps she was a woman. Desperately she reached out for the strangers offered hand. The spiders were so close now that she could smell their characteristic chemical odour caused by their venom— she daren't look back. Just a bit further!

Willing herself onwards she realised her own hand was glowing. Not the pure white of the one offered to her, but a sickly green. It glowed even brighter, so bright that Jen couldn't see. She grasped the hand of the glowing woman. Then… nothing.

Everything hurt. She grimaced against the pain as she tried to stretch her arms, but something was stopping her. There was a clink of metal and slowly but surely she opened her eyes. As she tried to focus on her surroundings Jen realised the reason for this: her wrists were bound with iron manacles. Panic began to rise through her, her breathing became faster – haggard, as Jen deduced where she was. The manacles and the iron bars to the side of her made it painfully obvious. She was in a cell.

As though sensing her nervousness her left hand began to throb, then flashed brightly green with a crackle. In fright she jumped and swayed on the chair she was bound to which caused the the guards she hadn't noticed to draw their swords and pointed them at her in unison. Then, the sounds of footsteps and bang! The wooden door in front of her was thrown open.

Two women entered with purpose, striding over to her quickly. They clearly held power over the guards because they sheathed their swords immediately at a nod from the first woman and saluted smartly. The first woman circled behind her so Jen couldn't see her face, but the second came forward with intent, stepping into the centre of the torchlit area in front of Jen. What little Jen could see of the woman under her lilac hood showed a pointed, pretty face and red hair which framed a very serious expression. Bewildered, Jen stared up at her.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now!" demanded the woman behind her with a strong Nevarran accent. Jen's neck cricked as she tried to turn against her bindings to see the second woman. As she strode into view Jen recoiled. The woman was incredibly stern looking with her close cropped black hair, pointed face and high cheekbones which were adorned with a scar on each side. She was tall and imposing, but it wasn't that which Jen was instantly wary of. It was the way the woman's hand rested ever so casually on the hilt of her sword, the terrible anger in her eyes and the battle scuffed armour she wore, complete with an eye emblazoned over the breastplate. A Seeker.

"The conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you." The seeker circled round to face her, staring at her accusingly.

The conclave? Jen thought that sounded familiar… she had been told to go there. Her head felt sluggish as she tried to remember more.

The Seeker was studying her, expecting Jen to speak. When she did not, the Seeker grabbed Jen's arm pulling it upwards and causing Jen to yelp in pain. The green mark flared again.

"Explain this?"

"I— can't." Jen stuttered.

"What do you mean you can't."

I don't know what that is… or how it got there."

You're lying!" The seeker grabbed the front of Jen's coat in her fury.

"We need her, Cassandra." The other woman pulled Cassandra away from Jen, and turned.

Jen felt lost. She had no idea what she was doing here, her memory felt incomplete– illusive and on top of that, her hand would not stop throbbing angrily. The conclave– she was to attend the conclave. Those people. They were all dead, that was the seeker Cassandra had said. Did that mean then— surely not? The Divine could not be dead. But then, wasn't it true that the Right Hand of the Divine was a seeker. She glanced up at Cassandra. It came back to her then. The Right Hand of the Divine is a seeker and is called Cassandra Pentaghast. That must mean that the other woman, her accent Orlesian, is the Left Hand Leliana. The Nightingale. That also meant that Jen was in considerably more trouble than she first realised.

Both Leliana and Cassandra turned back towards her and Jen felt her confidence return now that she knew who she was being interrogated by. They didn't know her, and if she didn't know what had caused her hand to be marked, or what it meant, Jen was sure that neither of the two women did either. And yet, they said that they needed her. Interesting.

"Whatever you think I did, I'm innocent." Jen stated calmly, looking up at them defiantly. Cassandra looked taken aback by the sudden change in Jen's countenance. Leliana was guarded however, which was to be expected given that Jen had heard Leliana was a master of secrets and a superb player of the game.

"Do you remember what happened? How this began?" Enquired Leliana cooly.

"I remember—running. Spiders chasing me, and then…" Jen paused for a moment trying order the jumble of memories that didn't seem to run coherently. "A woman?"

"A woman?" Leliana repeated, allowing her own confusion to be detected by Jen for the first time.

"Yes. She reached out to me, but then…"

Cassandra took Leliana by the arm and pulled her towards the door.

"Go to the forward camp Leliana." So she definitely is Leliana. Jen thought with satisfaction as Leliana nodded and headed out.

"I will take her to the rift." Cassandra called after her. Jen's brow furrowed at Cassandra's words. Rift? What rift?

To Jen's surprise Cassandra began to unlock the manacles binding her hands.

Despite herself, Jen found herself asking "What did happen?"

Meeting Cassandra's dark brown eyes this time didn't cause Jen to recoil. The anger they had shown seemed tempered, replaced by a hopelessness and perhaps grief.

"It– will be easier to show you." Cassandra sighed. She rebound Jen's hands with rope this time and lead her down the dark corridor out of the cell.

It was not the first time that Jen had been bound and found herself completely in the power of another. And not in the fun way, either, she thought wryly. In fact, as Jen mused she realised that she had lost count. Her life had always been complicated and she had learnt how to use what little she had to get by.

In her younger years her own stupidity or that of another would have caused her to be captured, but as she grew older, she learned the value of the unexpected. That sometimes, the best way to get close enough to a target was to make that target think that she was beaten. To let them take her bound into their halls and from there, where they thought it would be impossible and therefore became complacent: she would strike.

Absentmindedly picking at the knots on the rope, Jen wondered why she was following the Seeker outside, when if she wished she could be free of her bonds in seconds. Bright white light blinded her as Cassandra threw open the door, causing Jen to scrunch up her eyes. She heard the crunch of the Seekers boots in the still falling snow. If she wanted to escape, now was the time. She could see herself in her minds eye, quickly removing the ropes then catching Cassandra from behind with a blow to the head.

But she didn't, she chose to follow the Seeker forward. Her hand was still throbbing. Jen needed more information. Also she had to admit, she was curious as to what could cause a Seeker to look so hopeless. She doubted that it would be good news.

Then she saw it, whatever it was. A vast green tear in the sky, with clouds ripped around it in greater ferocity than any storm Jen had ever seen.

"We call it the breach." Cassandra stated, hopelessness entering her voice again. Jen could not tear her eyes away, the great wrongness of what she was seeing— it should not be possible.

"It is a massive rift into the world of the demons that grows larger with every passing hour. It is not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the conclave."

That made no sense to Jen, it was clear to her from the appearance of the breach that a great magic must have caused it.

"An explosion did that?"

"This one did. And it continues to grow."

A ripple of bright green light emanated from the breach, crackling like a terrible thunder.

Pain. An awful pain flowed through Jen and she grunted as she felt to her knees in the snow. Her arm was drawn upwards like a magnet, towards the breach. The mark on her hand glowed brighter. Sweating, she grimaced as she felt the mark spreading up her arm, feeling as though her skin was being branded with white hot irons. Vision blurred, Jen didn't see Cassandra move towards her until she felt the Seeker's gloved hand on her shoulder, trying to steady her.

Panting, Jen tried to stumble back to her feet as the pain abated, but Cassandra strengthened the grip on her shoulder. She held Jen in place easily, her gaze piercing Jen as though deciding whether she should tell her what she was about to say.

Holding Jen's gaze, Cassandra apparently made her decision because she said, in a softer tone than she had used thus far. "Each time the breach expands, your mark spreads. It—it is killing you."

Ah. Now at least, she was glad that she hadn't incapacitated Cassandra and made her escape. She looked down at the mark, it still throbbed painfully. Cassandra was right, it had spread further. This wasn't something that Jen could ignore. Well, she could, but she would rather not die in agony from some unknown magic.

"Is there anything that can be done?" Asked Jen nervously.

"We can only guess, but my advisors believe that the best chance you have is to use the mark to seal the breach. Do that and the link will be severed."

"But I am no mage." Jen stated. "I know nothing about magic and even less about how to use it."

Cassandra pulled Jen to her feet. "That may be true, but I have a particular colleague who is knowledgable in this area and who we are hopeful that they may be able to assist you. Come now, I know you have no choice, but the breach does need to be closed and you are the only one who has any chance of doing it."

Jen had to resist rolling her eyes.