My twin Spirit,
Revas will be coming with me for our celebration of twin birth. It has been long since we danced beneath the stars and the moon together. He has never danced with the People. He has never heard our songs from any mouth but my own, and You have never seen your nephew's face. It is the greatest gift I can bring to you, I think. He is a precious child, a gift to me from the Creators to soothe my sorrows. When I felt his life inside of me, I knew I would be alright.
I hope he will bring the same joy to the Clan when we are with you. The guardsmen who travel with us have been told to expect you just outside the clan's camp. We worry there may be trouble on the road. I hope not.
The Venatori have increased their activities, and I had been urged to remain at Skyhold. I cannot miss our twin birth celebrations again. I miss you. I miss all of them. I miss the company of my own kind. It will be good for Revas to walk with the clan for a few days. The Shadow of the Inquisition is a hard place for a child to grow.
Please do not be frightened when you see my face is bare of vallaslin. It will be hard to explain to the Keeper most of all. I do not know if she will believe my reasons for giving them from my skin so freely. It will be easier for the men to tell us apart, at least. No one will come to us thinking us our other spirit. Do you remember how confused Arthelan used to get sometimes?
We will stay until the moon has gone. It will be a good, long vacation. I want him to learn our ways and be around his own people. The shemlen he has grown with are kind and good, but they are not Elvhen. He has been separated from the People for too long. We will see you soon.
Ma'arlath, sister.
Venuriel Lavellan
Her twin spirit would be close soon. Amathana stared out toward the road and worried over her robes. Few distractions existed to keep her busy during her wait. Since dawn she took her post at the opening of the camp and watched the road for any sign of her sister. Too long passed behind her since last she saw her twin spirit.
With her sister's departure from the clan, she now served as First to their Keeper. Six years it had been since last the Inquisitor walked with her Clan, and now she returned for their birth celebrations. As precious as their rare Twin Birth was, the visit of her sister now might make the event pale in comparison for her clan. It would be the first time she saw her nephew, a little boy of but four years. He had but four months until his own birthday came.
Amathana expected him to be half-Shem, no matter the way his sister spoke of his pure blood. The Inquisition did not attract many of The People, she knew from the stories. Her sister once wrote to her of a man who was Elvhen like them, but after the defeat of their great enemy, his name never appeared again. She did not name him when she birthed her son to a full moon. She did not name him even when asked. All she ever said was that he had a reason for everything, and she assumed that included her son. Two years of asking, and Amathana stopped trying. She told herself not to ask now. She had to believe that this mysterious fellow that abandoned her sister sired Revas.
Worry plagued her. The moon shined with a pale yellow light that frightened her in the night, and now She felt the fear in her waking. Always she worried for her twin spirit, especially when she knew she traveled. It pained her now to think something had gone wrong while she walked with the Da'len in tow. He likely slowed their progress. His little feet could only carry him so quick, and carrying him the whole way would put a terrible burden upon her sister's shoulders. They should have been there by now, regardless of the child. Her gut told her something was wrong.
The Northern Free Marches carried a chill air that signalled the return of winter to their forested lands. A little further south and the ocean air that passed over Kirkwall and the Sundermount would keep them warm, but not in this place. Her Clan found peace and comfort in surviving through the cold. The shemlen did not come into the forest when the cold arrived. The Tevinter slavers that plagued them all too often in the summer months ceased their attacks. Now, the flames she conjured with the Keeper burned high and tall between each family of the clan, and already they huddled about them from protection against the cold. The hunters could not stay out as long. She wondered if they would return before her sister found them.
The shifting of the wood ahead of her signaled the approach of a traveller. Three sets of footsteps; one of them she could hardly hear. It must have been the boy, too small for the forest to carry.
When she saw an elven boy come up the road flanked by two shemlen(or at least she thought they were shemlen, she couldn't see their faces in their armor), her belly flew high into her throat. The banner of the Inquisition decorated their armor. The guardsmen looked battle worn. The cloth which peaked through their plated armor appeared bloody. If it was their blood or the blood of their enemies, Amathana could not say for sure. They did not walk as if wounded. Fatigue weighed upon them and brought them low.
The boy seemed tired and frightened. His bright blue eyes she could see from down the road. Dark hair, not quite black. It was not the pale blond she and her twin spirit sported. He had pointed ears. No quick blood ran in his veins. This had to be her sister's dear child Revas. He had the same look on his face she saw on her sister many times before, something between fear and determination. It was all she needed to know him immediately.
"Where is the Inquisitor?"
"Taken, my lady- is that what we call you? This is the Lavellan clan?"
"Yes!" Amathana rushed forward to greet them," you're in the right place."
Her rush startled the boy, and he ducked swiftly away to hide behind the legs of one of the guardsmen. He moved on quick legs with the run of a future hunter, but if Amathana knew one thing of her sister's choice of sire, she imagined the boy had the Gift.
"You'll have to forgive the boy. It has been.. An arduous journey. If we turned back, we feared the same who took his mother would try to take him as well."
"It's alright, I understand," Amathana kneeled before them and offered a hand to the child," what is your name,Da'len?"
She knew his name, but she had to break the ice somewhere. He knew the language of the Elvhen, and the familiar term perked his ears. He reached out to her, as if the use of the word confirmed her friendliness.
"Revas," he answered in a small voice.
"Revas," she repeated, and she took his hand into her own.
She always thought it a peculiar name. What an odd choice on her sister's part. Freedom. How free was he really while they lived among shemlen?
"I am your auntie Amathana," she smiled at him," you are safe now."
"You look like Mamae," he said after a time of silence," are the bad men going to give her back?"
"We'll make them give her back, Da'len. No one will keep my twin spirit away from you," she leaned in and offered her other arm to him.
He came in to hug her, his young mind satisfied that he was in a safe place now. Amathana wrapped her arms about him and held him close. All the while, she looked up to the guardsmen. They watched her with some apprehension. She looked exactly like her sister, so it made it easier for them to trust her. However, they must have been uncertain what must be done going forward.
"Do you have any leads?"
"Venatori, Tevinter cultists. They served Corypheus during the crisis, ma'am." The taller of the guardsmen responded to her.
"She said there was some worry about them. Are there any inquisition allies in the Free Marches?"
"Varric is in Kirkwall. He has allies there, people who would help. We could go to him, ask him to aid in recovering the Inquisitor," the other guardsman spoke," it isn't far south. We could make the journey there and back in three days."
"Do it. I'll take Revas in to the Clan and inform the Keeper we need to keep our guard up," Amathana stood and kept hold of the boy.
She balanced him on her hip, and she glanced down toward the campsite far behind her. She felt the eyes of the Keeper upon her, and the visitor to her right did not take his gaze away from the Inquisitor soldiers. She made note of the way he stood at attention, as if in fear.
She would remember that look upon his face well. He stood out among the clan, given his bare face and head. He had eyes like a thin layer of ice over a dark lake. The staff he carried denoted him as a Mage like herself. The glimmering crystal at its end seemed to smoke, leaving a trail of mists wherever he walked. He had earned her curiosity when he arrived the day before, but now he had her attention.
It could not be a coincidence he arrived the day before her sister was lost.
"Do you have supplies? Do you need rest?" She lifted her gaze back to the guardsmen.
"The Inquisitor's safety is more important. If we get a start for Kirkwall now, we'll be back faster. We have supplies enough to make it that far. We have an idea where they might have gone, and Varric's contacts could start the search before we even return."
"Okay. Please, come back to us with him. I want to be there when we go after my sister," Amathana bowed her head to the guards.
She watched them go, and Revas squeezed her tight. She glanced down to him and caught him staring at the backs of those that saved his life. It must have been frightening to see the last familiar sight go from his vision. Now he was alone with his distant family.
"They will return, Da'len. When they do, we will bring your mother home," she tried to comfort the child," until then, your clan will protect you. Lets go meet the Keeper."
He buried his head into the extra cloth about her neck, another sign of fear. She worried for him. Her sister's little light had never been without her, and so young.. It must be a terrible trauma.
Keeper Deshanna waited for them with her hands to her chest, chestnut hair draping her face and hiding her expression from view. The lack of her former First must have moved her to prayer. Amathana would join her for such prayers later. The whole clan would offer up their pleas as they did many times during her sister's quest years ago.
The Visitor remained beside the Keeper and leaned upon his staff. He came upon their clan suddenly, professing to be an elf from Kirkwall seeking a Dalish Clan to be with his people. He did not seem to be comfortable among them. He passed a single daylingering at the edge of camp, and she had yet to learn his name. With the Inquisition gone, he looked at ease. His unusual gaze settled on the boy now, and she could do nothing but squeeze the child tighter to her chest. She would keep her eyes on him.
"She was taken while on the road, Keeper. I know her. She would have told them to protect her child before herself," Amathana turned to try and get the boy to look at the Keeper," this is Revas."
He refused to look, but the Keeper did not seem insulted by this. She reached out to press a hand to the back of his head with the touch of an elder trying to comfort a weeping child.
"You are safe now, Da'len. We will not let them hurt you," she whispered to him.
"I want my mommy back," he whimpered as response.
"We will get her back," Amathana assured him," I promise you."
"It will be a difficult task," the visitor interrupted.
The looks of admonition that fell upon him silenced him for but a moment. He looked between them with a narrowing glance of his own. He did not seem the sort to be silenced by a pair of women directing him to do so wordlessly. Indeed, Amathana guessed correctly about him. The visitor's pride rose over their disagreement, however, and he continued.
"Did the Inquisition say who took her?"
"Venatori, they are-"
"Tevinter cultists, yes," his interruption earned a glare from the First," but can a single Dalish clan match the extremists of an entire nation?"
"We will not go to meet them in battle," the Keeper solidified her stance," we will wait for the Inquisition agents, and will we do as they suggest. My people are not warriors."
"Some of them would try to be for her, Keeper, but yes. These people cannot fight Tevinter beyond the slavers who come to try and take us," Amathana struggled to hold the boy up properly on her hip as she spoke.
"Where are the agents of the Inquisition?" The visitor inquired.
"Kirkwall. My sister has friends there who will come."
The visitor stilled as he considered that statement. He looked to the child in her arms, and he addressed him for the first time.
"Can you tell us what happened, Da'len?"
"No," the child's soft voice trapped itself in Amathana's Robes. He squeezed his arms around her neck. His muscles across his back felt tense. The quivering in his words told her he cried against her. The moisture she felt on her shoulder a few moments later confirmed it.
"What about just to me, Revas? You and I share blood.." The First ran her fingers through the boy's thin hair.
"He knows none of us, yet alone Abelas. He is not of this clan. The boy knows he isn't of his blood."
"Abelas is your name, visitor?" Amathana focused her gaze on his bare face," do all Elvhen from shemlen lands bare such sad names?"
"Few know the language of our people. I doubt my mother knew what it meant," he explained himself, but Amathana found that a peculiar coincidence.
She chose not to address it,"I'll sit with the boy by the fire. Perhaps after some rest, he will tell us what happened."
"Make sure the child sleeps in an aravel, Amathana. He needs to be hidden," Keeper Deshanna spoke.
Her gentle affections to the boy continued as she attempted to soothe him. The Keeper's touch could never equal his mother's comforts, but Amathana knew she would try anyway. The First did little but hold him and keep a watchful gaze on all the Clan. It seemed every pair of eyes lingered on them. They expected the Inquisitor, and instead they received her fatherless son.
Amathana hoped he would not soon be motherless as well.