A/N: This little ditty is a two perspective story. Both will encapsulate the PoVs of f!Hawke and Fenris from childhood to adulthood. Prepare for implications of violent sexual content and down right nastiness a la violence and language.

Disclaimer: BioWare owns the characters and locations... lucky bastards.

The rains came to pass on the sleepy hamlet of Lothering. It was typical for the season that sowers would be out amongst their fields planting their seeds while the soil was moist. The temperate rain shower locked the Hawke children indoors for the day. It felt like an eternity in the small homestead. Adria could barely see out the rain speckled window. Her little feet were stretched as far as they could. On pointe, she strained to watch her father work. His tired features were shadowed by the long black wisps of hair that he fought to keep out of his face.

In the background the small child could hear the twins bickering on the floor amidst a pile of blocks and dolls. Adria had recently come into her own. Her ability of spellcasting came as little shock to both of her parents, but they were concerned. In recent months, her mother had heard that her cousin's children had all been taken off to the Circle. It was a very real threat that she now posed on her family. She bit her lip and sniffled as she looked to her mother darning socks at the table and back to her father.

The arguing continued and Bethany squealed in agony. Her mother rose from her seat with a sigh and picked the whimpering child off the floor. Carver sat with a satisfied look on his face. His fraternal twin held her arm close to her chest, a small hand covering a hidden wound from sight. Their mother set her on the table top and gently pried the sniveling child's hand away. She scowled with a shake of the head and went to get a rag from off the counter.

Adria leaned into her younger sister curiously and saw the perfectly aligned rows of teeth marks on her forearm. Being the caring older sister that she was, she put her arm around her younger sibling and squeezed. Bethany relaxed when Mother came back and dabbed the painful impressions delicately.

"Adria, go get your father," Mother ordered without a look in her direction.

The mousy little girl hopped off the chair and opened the door and stepped onto the wooden porch. The rain pitter pattered on the awning. Slow streams of water fell from the eaves and puddled near the stairs. As any child would in the situation of puddles- she jumped off the deck into the pooling water and giggled. Muddy water splashed her pale legs, speckling them in brown grit. She bounced up and down a few more times making sure that she was good and dirty for when she returned inside.

"Father," the little girl called. She ran as fast as her little legs would carry. The grass underneath tickled her bare feet as she approached.

The kind man looked down at her with a smile. Adria spun in the rain, enjoying the warm water hit her bare skin. She looked up to the heavens letting the little kisses of water hit her face.

"What are you doing out here?" Father asked. He crouched down to her level. He dusted his hands off and patted her on the head.

"Mother sent me to get you," Adria said. She twisted her damp hair around her finger. Her dark green eyes glistened in the waning sun. "Carver bit Bethany and-."

Her father frowned and stood. "That's all I need to hear." He held his hand out for her to take but Adria resisted.

"Can't I play for a little while longer?" Adria whined.

Her father laughed and shook his head.

"Your mother would kill both of us if I left you out here to play in the rain." Adria frowned. Her pouty lip jutted out and her chin quivered. Her father exhaled and swept the small child up in his arms. "Maybe we'll work on some magic in a little bit. How about that?"

Adria nodded with fervor. They both returned inside, where the insanity seemed to subside. Adria's mother had resumed her stitching and Carver sat on a small stool in the center of the room. His chin was in his hand. He glared at his sisters and stared off into space.

"What's going on, love?" her father asked, letting the child slide to the floor.

"Nothing, Malcolm. It is already taken care of," the worn out woman answered, never taking her eyes from her work.

"Well, I'm going to work with Adria for a little bit," he looked down at his eldest daughter with a wink and led her out of the house. He took her to a small building just behind the dwelling and unlocked the bolted door.

Adria stood in the middle of the ramshackle room and waited for her father to set up for their daily lesson. She had learned barely anything about the art of spell casting, but she always anticipated some new breakthrough in her education. Malcolm shut the door and turned to the little girl, whose eyes gleamed in the dim light.

"Alright, little girl, we're going to work on something difficult. Are you up to that?" Malcolm asked. He pulled a stool from the wall and sat on it. "Control. We're going to work on how you can hide your abilities from others."

"Why would I want to hide it?" she questioned, cocking her head.

"Because, magic frightens people and the templars will try to take you away if they find out about it."

"But magic is a gift, isn't it?"

"It is a very special gift; one that takes great responsibility to control and maintain. Once you learn to control yourself with it then the words and motions will come simply. A simple heal spell or fireball spell can come back-with negative consequences- if done incorrectly."

"So I can do really bad things?"

"If you don't do them correctly- yes."

"I don't want to do that," Adria muttered rapidly shaking her head.

"I know you don't. You can do some very basic spells, but sometimes when you get angry you have a tendency to let things get out of control. The day we found out you could cast spells you nearly burnt the house down and it was all over something small and meaningless."

"It wasn't meaningless," the little girl snapped. She balled her hands up into fists and shook angrily.

"Dearest one, relax. You'll learn what is really important and what isn't when you get older." He rose from his seat and stood behind the girl. He placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. "Now I want you to cast a small fire spell, but do not release it. Just hold it there."

Darkness fell over the hills and small valley where the Hawke family resided. After the dishes had been cleaned and the children had been tucked away for the evening, Adria laid in bed looking up at the ceiling. She tried to think through all things her father had said and left little doubt that magic wasn't truly a gift from the Maker, but a cold and calculating attempt at misery. For someone as young as she- whose six year old mind couldn't fathom the complexity at which her powers could contain- she was going to correct the world of its misgivings about the negative obligations that mages had. As a whole, she had no real grasp of what the implications of the Fade or blood magic, abominations had to do with her or how they could affect the way she did things.

A small whimper caught her attention and saw a bleary-eyed Bethany standing beside her bed. Adria scooted over and opened the blankets for her younger sister. Sacrificing her comfort and pillows for her sister; she dozed off. She tried to keep those terrifying thoughts from invading her dreams but woke in spurts of cold sweats and dazed recollections.

Crashing and yelling from outside of the children's room awoke Adria. Her eyes, heavy with exhaustion, caught sight of her mother's frame pressed against the door. The frightened child sat up in bed with a start. A scuffling sound neared the door and her mother became startled. She grabbed the knob and closed her eyes.

"Momma?" Adria questioned in the blackened room. "What's wrong?"

"Hush, darling." She waved the scared child to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I need you to get your brother and sister out of here. Understand?"

"But why?"

"It's-," Glass shattered on the floor and Malcolm yelling overshadowed her wracked nerves. "Just get them out the window and run. I will be right behind you."

Adria started to cry. She was terrified. She had no idea what was going on and the way her mother was acting, things were not going anywhere near a positive direction. Her mother brushed her dark locks away and smiled. An abrupt kick to the door sent Adria's mother sprawling to the floor beside her. Three imposing shadows walked into the room. They stood over the little girl with their weapons drawn. Adria heard her father yelling at them to get away from her. One of the helmed men picked up the semi-conscious woman at her feet and dragged her from the room. Another dragged both of her siblings from bed. They shrieked in terror at the strangers that had so forcefully grabbed them from the safety of their beds. The one that remained grabbed Adria by the hand and bound her hands in rope before shoving her out the door into the small family room.

"Mother and children are all bound and ready for transport, Captain," one of the men said to a larger and meaner looking man in the doorway.

The four of them huddled in the corner in fear as they watched their father and husband struggle with two more men. His hands were restrained to the table. He looked at his loved ones with no fear.

"Well, he's of no use to us," the captain responded.

"Please don't hurt them," Malcolm pleaded.

"We wouldn't do that."

The captain withdrew a long and heavy sword from its sheath. It still glowed brightly in the faint light. Adria watched it in shock. The way it bent the yellow and orange light from the dimming fire was mystical. The sadistic captain looked at the child an evil smirk spread across his face. Yet his eyes were devoid of any true emotion.

"Leandra, look away. Shelter the children," Malcolm told her.

Leandra covered the twins' eyes and slammed her own shut, leaving Adria staring into the face of horror. She couldn't look away. She watched as the man swung the blade through the air and lopped off her father's hand. A spray of blood splattered across the stunned girls face. The sound of steel snapping bone formed a hard pit in the little girl's stomach. Malcolm screamed. He clenched his teeth as his hand fell to the floor with a thud. Malcolm's eyes fell on the bound child and frowned. He uttered something to her, but she couldn't make out the words.

Adria brought her hands to her face and smeared away some of the wet and foreign fluid from near her eyes and looked at it. She smeared it in her fingers and shook with rage. Control. She had to fight her very powers to keep from kindling an already dire situation into a firestorm of blood and damnation. A second thud to the table and an equally loud scream made the once carefree lass jump with a start. The slow trickle of blood splattered the floor.

"Get them out of here," the captain ordered the marauders.

Heavy hands picked Adria up. She couldn't stop watching her father. The pools of blood that formed around the table started to trickle through the grout work of the stone floor. She was lifted off the floor and flung over the shoulder of a man. His heavy armor dug into her ribs and she yelped in agony as the scales cut into her. She caught the final glimpses of her father watching her as she was removed from the scene.

Her mother cried as she was drug along. Bethany and Carver were both hoisted on to the shoulders of other men. They were sobbing violently, but Adria remained stoic not showing her emotions, not letting the weakness get to her. She wasn't going to satisfy them with her frightened wailing. She repeated to herself over and over again the last words that her father told her at the end of their lesson: everything you do and don't do- even magic- is based off emotions. If you can control that then you will control all the forces that remain in constant imbalance.