Okay, I decided to take up sayain673's challenge of doing a crossover between Fate/Stay Night and Dragon Age Origins with everyone's favorite red clad Counter Guardian in tow in the Journey to unite all of Ferelden against the Blight. Because he is that awesome.

As for who the Warden will be, well... there's going to be two of them. Both of them from the Mage Origin with Amell and Surana being recruited by Duncan at the same time. Amell is going to be a sheltered young woman let loose on the world... draw your conclusions from there. Surana is going to be Wynne's protege as Amell is Irving's. You'll read more about him later on since I don't want to spoil his character right now.

Also I want to thank sayain673 for telling me to put in some more description in the chapter, as wow, this is now over 1,800 words more than the original. So thanks, even if I had to work on it for several more days and delay the release!

But why should I tell you everything in the Author's note? Why not just read it?

On to the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or Dragon Age. The two series belong respectively to Type-Moon and Bioware.

The Knight and the Mage

Serena Amell ducked behind a tree just in time to avoid an arrow to the head. The arrow in question made a loud thud as its' point crashed into the trunk of the tree that was acting as a barricade between her and the projectile.

The mage didn't waste any time preparing a spell to fire back in retaliation after several more arrows whizzed past in succession, either missing her completely or crashing into the poor tree she was hiding behind, forming a Fire Blast in her hands. She then shot the completed spell at several advancing Darkspawn that were getting a little too close to her location.

'You have no one but yourself to blame, Serena.' The dark haired mage inwardly rebuked herself harshly for the hundred time, peering around her makeshift barricade to see how many of the monsters were left before drawing back to avoid another arrow. 'If you didn't keep stopping and gathering every flower you came across, you wouldn't even be in this mess in the first place!'

"I will never complain about Irving's lectures again." She moaned, a vision of a kindly but stern elderly man flashing through her mind.

Why did she keep getting herself into these kinds of situations?

Once again Serena's curiosity and need to stop and examine every new discovery she came across had gotten the better of her, if the distorted and twisted creatures on her tail was any latest bout of trouble that she brought crashing down onto her head was any indication. She looked down at the white and red flowers she was holding, the delicate beauties of nature being the reason for this mess.

The Kennel Master back in the Ostagar camp had requested she bring to him if he were to help the sick Mabari Hounds in his care, increasing their chances of survival after they swallowed Darkspawn blood. She had been so incredibly focused on her task of gathering as many of the flowers as she could, the mage didn't realize the group she had been with was getting further and further away until she finally realized that they were nowhere in sight.

It didn't take Serena long to figure out that she was in trouble and that if she managed to make it out of the Korcari Wilds intact, she was either going to get it from Duncan or one of the Senior Enchanters back at the camp.

And she, the young mage loathed to admit, would deserve every word they directed at her for this.

Her own teacher and closest thing to a fatherly figure that she would ever get, First Enchanter Irving, had said that Serena's most prominent fatal flaw was her ability to block out her surroundings and everything else once something caught her attention. This had been backed up by her older sister Solana, their motherly figure Senior Enchanter Wynne, and one of her best friends (well only best friend now since Jowan revealed himself to be a blood mage and fled the tower the same day Duncan recruited her) Luke Surana.

Serena tended to ignore this unpleasant factor about herself in favor of sating her appetite for knowledge, but the memories of their words and their speeches about this side of her was choosing now of all times to resurface from the depths of her memories.

At first the protege's curiosity had been humoured by the others when they set out in the Korcari Wilds, Luke being sole the exception as he had already been witness and subjected to this side of her for years. But like most people who found her urge to examine everything in detail amusing at the beginning, they soon got exasperated with being held up by everything that caught Serena's roving eye and told her that they would leave her behind if she didn't hurry along.

She didn't think they really meant it, but the mage had gotten the meaning of their message and stopped holding up the rest of the group.

Of course, once Serena's blue eyes caught the flowers matching the exact description the Kennel Master gave her, she forgot all about the task Duncan had assigned them in favour of getting a closer look and determining whether the flora was really the flower needed for curing the Mabari Hounds.

Having lived in Fereldan's Circle of Magi, a tower located on Lake Calenhad that was historically known as Kinloch Hold for as long as she remembered, Serena was relatively new when it came to the ways and wonders of the world and it showed much to the embarrassment of Luke and the other mages (and Templars) in the camp. Especially when she kept stopped random soldiers and asked them questions (or rather demanded answers) ranging from what their home village was like to... well, questions that most people would normally know not to ask in public until Wynne dragged her away and sternly told her that she was being nosy.

The Grey Warden recruit stopped asking so many questions after that, but her curiosity of the new sights that popped up around her continued to grow.

So when Duncan told them they needed to retrieve four vials worth of Darkspawn blood and that they needed to go into the Korcari Wilds to do that, Serena had been absolutely ecstatic. She had already seen as much of the camp as she could and was beginning to get fidgety when the Grey Warden Commander had called her, Luke, the other recruits Daveth and Ser Jory, and finally the junior Grey Warden Alistair together so he could assign them their final task to do before they officially became Grey Wardens.

The journey into the Wilds had started out alright until her own stupidity had gotten her separated from the others.

With no idea where to proceed next or how to get back to the camp, Serena was effectively stuck. She could try and find her own way around the forest, but even the very little common sense she had told the Circle Mage that moving from where she was currently stranded heightened her chances of getting hopelessly lost in the forest as well as lessened the factor of being found by the others.

The best thing she could do at the time was stay where she had been stranded and rejoin the group when they came back, steeling herself to bear whatever words they had for her. At least that had been the plan until the Darkspawn came out from the ground and attacked her. Serena had taken one look at the small hoard coming after her before instantly fleeing towards the trees for cover, forced to abandon the waiting spot in favour of getting away with her life.

Leading to her current predicament.

She was at a safe distance to cast her spells without having to worry about getting hit by long ranged weapons, but there was still the minor problem of getting rid of her pursuers.

Fire Blast and Fireball were effective against the Hurlocks and Genlocks intent on killing the mage, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. Spells had less impact when shot from a long distance, and the young woman only had so much mana coursing through her body to supply the spells that were keeping them at bay.

'Four, five, six...' Serena frowned when she counted the number of Darkspawn she still had to kill. 'Not good. How am I going to get myself out of this one?!' She wanted to wail to the heavens.

It wasn't unusual for Serena to get herself into some sort of mess. From trapping herself under a bookshelf because she overbalanced it by trying to get at a book far from her reach, to accidentally locking herself inside a room, to a number of other embarrassing situations that made her blush when she was discovered later on.

By now she and trouble were pretty good friends.

So getting herself into a situation was nothing new for her.

But this was the first time she had gotten herself into one where she could actually die.

Seeing that the Darkspawn were approaching her again, Serena started channeling another fire spell despite her body's protests that she wouldn't be able to handle it. Considering she would die once they got close to her anyways, she decided to take the risk. It was a case of either dying using too much mana, her spell going awry, or the Darkspawn getting to her first.

And if she had to die, she would have preferred having gone down fighting rather than not at all.

"This appears to be quite the situation you've gotten yourself into."

The Fireball spell that the mage had been preparing to cast nearly dissipated in her hands in violent surprise at the amused voice that came out of nowhere, making Serena reflexively look around in shock. She hadn't heard that voice since her Harrowing...

"Mouse?!" She yelped out loud, even though the being in question wasn't physically within the vicinity.

Mouse had showed up during her Harrowing, introducing himself as a friendly mage apprentice of the past who failed his own Harrowing. Trying to earn her trust, he pretended that he wanted to help Serena through hers so that she would succeed where he had not. It wasn't near the end that Mouse revealed himself to be a pride demon, her real test, whose purpose was to tempt Serena with her desires and use her own weaknesses against her.

Serena had passed her Harrowing with flying colours, but her success and becoming an official mage made her realize that resisting a demon's charm wasn't as easy as it sounded.

She shuddered to think what would have happened if she failed. Possession by the pride demon she had originally thought was an ally or being run through by the blades of the Templars who were there to ensure that an Abomination wouldn't be running loose through the Tower.

The pride demon's smooth chuckle sounded in her head as frantic thoughts of why Mouse of all people... er, beings would be making himself known now of all times. "Don't worry; I'm here to help you this time. After all, you're no good to me dead."

"Help me?! Last time you tried-" Serena's incredulity was instantly cut off when she felt something surge within her, the Fireball she was preparing increasing in strength and intensity that it flared in her hands and burned her fingers. "Ow! Too strong! Mouse, this can't be called a Fireball any more!"

Realizing that Mouse wasn't going to do any more help her as he did not reply to her complaints, she made a split second decision to switch the now violent swirl of flame from a Fireball into an Inferno.

It was a tricky process; she knew the theory behind Inferno, had memorized it until it was branded into her mind from reading all the books Irving had allowed her to look at, but she never actually cast it. It was forbidden to cast the stronger spells of any of the four primal elements without any formal training from a senior mage, and that could only happen after one became an official mage.

Which Serena was, but she never actually got to practice it thanks to the circumstances that forced her to leave what she had called 'home'.

'Too late to back out now,' Serena grimly thought. She would just have to take her chances on hoping the spell turned out right or burn with the storm of fire she had brought into this world.

Closing her eyes and using all of her concentration to direct the volatile Inferno what to do, she thrust her arms in front of her and threw the maelstrom of flames in the direction of the Darkspawn, ignoring the backlash that came from the poor control she had over her casting of the impromptu, improvised spell.

If one had little control over a spell or did not perform it correctly, the caster would know namely by either the pain and injuries that followed or their violent death at the hands of whatever force they recklessly summoned. Since Serena was still alive, it was thankfully the former this time.

The screeches following her spell told her that despite Inferno not being perfect, it was still pretty effective. The column of swirling flame that she summoned burned everything it came into contact and before long, the last enemy was nothing but a pile of smoldering ash on the ground with the surrounding area scorched from the fire's touch.

Hearing and seeing nothing that indicated that she was still in danger from any hidden Darkspawn that she could have possibly missed (though highly doubtful), Serena let out a sigh of relief and allowed herself to relax.

She was safe. She managed to get herself out of this just fine. Now all she needed to do was try and find her way back and reunite with-

"I thought that I would have had to jump in and rescue you, but it looks like you rescued yourself just fine." A deep baritone voice that was not Mouse's spoke behind her.

Serena's guard instantly slammed back up and she let out a startled shriek in surprise. Reflexively, she whirled around to face the source of and hurled a low level ice spell called Winter's Grasp (that she had somehow started casting in her panic) at the person without thinking.

As soon as the spell left her finger tips, however, the young mage realized in horror what she had done.

But it was too late to take back what she had cast. All she could do was watch Winter's Grasp race towards her unintended target.

Except her worries turned out to be unfounded.

Whoever the person she shot the spell at dodged the ice attack, Winter's Grasp now sailing harmlessly through the air and dispersing in particles of frost when it didn't hit its mark.

Serena looked on in dumbfounded shock. What was common fact to her (and no she was not bragging) was that she was a fast spell caster. Irving often complimented just how quickly she could form a spell and she had seen for herself that her spells were faster compared to some of the other apprentices.

Avoiding the spell should have practically been impossible. At the very least the target wouldn't have gotten away unscathed, but she couldn't see anyone where she saw the figure standing just moments ago.

"I commend you on your spell casting speed, however-"

Whoever had startled Serena and then pulled off dodging her spell at an inhuman speed was cut off as the mage whirled around in the new direction the voice had come from with a Fireball instinctively ready to throw at them...

...had her arm not been caught in a vice like grip and twisted so hard and so fast that it was a miracle it didn't break. Due to the disruption in her concentration from being caught off guard and the pain, the Fireball dispersed and Serena suddenly found herself at the mercy of... she didn't know. Couldn't think straight with the pain in her arm flaring up due to the pressure being applied to it.

"-I'm faster."

Futilely attempting to pull her arm away and failing, Serena slowly and reluctantly looked up to gaze into the face of her captor.

The mage found herself bemusedly gazing up into the tanned features of a man who was staring back down at her with amusement written all over his face and a smirk plastered on his lips as if he was laughing at her.

Her captor had unusual white hair, at least unusual for someone who looked to be in his mid twenties to thirties, that complimented the brown texture of his skin. His eyes were grey, reminiscent of the steel colour of the swords she had seen through out her life. The colour wasn't the only thing his eyes had in common with the blades; she could feel them piercing through her, right through her flesh and bone down to her very soul.

It didn't help that he was very tall either; towering over her small stature of barely five feet. She wasn't good at guessing at other people's heights, but she estimated him to be somewhere around the six foot tall range, which would make him about a foot taller than her at least.

Serena wanted to look away from that sharp, piercing gaze but couldn't bring herself to; how could she be sure that she wouldn't be dead if she did?

The man and the mage stared off at one another; steel grey meeting dark blue as the owner of the respective pair of eyes refused to give in to the other.

It was the man who broke off the staring contest.

"Heh."

He dropped her arm and took a step back.

That was all she needed as she backed away from him, clutching her wounded arm. She grimaced but still kept her gaze on the man.

Serena freely admitted that she didn't have good judgement when it came to people- a fact made especially prominent in the incident with Jowan. She tended to take things at face value, choosing to believe a person's words rather than taking the time to really look at them and determining whether they were telling the truth or lying.

It was a headache, otherwise, as Serena preferred to think the best of people rather than regard them with suspicion.

But even she knew that the man standing in front of her was dangerous. He was currently weaponless but his stance, his form, his gaze... everything about him screamed that he was a person you shouldn't go up against. At least not without an army backing you up. The Darkspawn earlier had been scary enough, but this person... this being was on a whole different level from those things.

If he wanted, he could kill her in a matter of seconds and she wouldn't even know until her soul was back at the Maker's side. The fact that she wasn't dead at that very moment was because he was letting her live.

"Who are you?" Serena asked, resorting to the one thing she was well known for to keep her calm: curiosity.

The man raised one of his white eye brows. "You attack me and then expect me to tell you my name?"

"Um... yes...?" Serena blinked, then flushed. That... okay, yeah, that sounded pretty dumb to her ears too.

Attempting to distract herself so that she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of the possibly dangerous and threatening stranger even further, she scanned him with critical eyes and frowned. His outfit was a little unusual in her eyes, nothing like the armour or robes she had seen back at the camp.

The first layer of his clothing was some sort of form fitting black armour with white outline that showed off a physique that made the Templars and the knights of the army look out of shape in comparison (which they were not). Over the tight body suit he wore some sort of segmented long sleeved red cloak. The top half only covered his arms, while the bottom half of his segmented cloak encircled his waist, similar to the skirts of the Templar uniform.

Had she been the type who took interest in the opposite sex or let her hormones rule her, Serena would have noticed that he was what most of the girls back at the tower would call 'eye candy'.

"Anyways, how did you get behind me? I would have heard you!" Serena demanded, attempting, and failing to keep the panic out of her voice. "Where did you come from? You're not... one of the Chasind, are you?!"

Okay, maybe she wouldn't have heard him. But he did not need to know that.

As far as she knew, they were the only ones who lived in the Korcari Wilds. The Chasind were made up of people who chose to spurn the teachings of Andraste and the Chantry, living life their own way and not caring about the main religion of Thedas...

The man smirked again, obviously amused by her statement of possibly being one of the Chasind Wilders. This elicited a pout from Serena as she shot him a glare that was not as intimidating as she would have liked it to be.

"It's wasn't that hard. Especially if the person in question can be so easily distracted by flowers."

Serena flushed at the emphasis the man put on the particular word. She opened her mouth to argue with him, but clamped it shut when she realized that she would just be digging herself into an even bigger hole.

And it was already big enough as it was.

"Ah... yes..."

The man folded his arms across his toned chest, a stern look crossing his face as his steel eyes glared disapprovingly at her. "Hmph. Even a child would know better."

The mage flinched, and she looked down at the ground in shame. As hurtful as his words were, especially since they were from a person she just met, she should have known better than to allow herself to get so caught up in her inquisitive nature as she had earlier. If Mouse hadn't supplied her with more mana earlier, she would have most likely been dead.

"As for where I came from, are you familiar with the legend of the 'Witch of the Wilds'?"

Serena's head snapped up and her eyes widened at the term. Yes, she did in fact recognize the legend behind those words. "The 'Witch of the Wilds'? You mean the apostate mages that are said to live in the Korcari Wilds...?"

Oh.

Serena's eyes were the size of saucers as she gaped at him.

"You're a Witch of the Wilds?!"

And thus was the introduction between the man who would later be known as the Red Knight and the young woman who would be hailed as the Hero of Ferelden.