"Your Grace, I come seeking your assistance."

The being addressed as Grace smiled, "Sure, what's up?"

The person asking for help looked up to the red eyes of the leader of the House of Ballads and was speechless. The Fae seeking help had lived hundreds of ballads and still his leader's choice of words confused him. He found himself asking himself, not for the first time, why there was a dustling ruling the House of Ballads. Mortals were so...odd.

The mortal quickly grew bored of the staring contest so she yawned and said, nonchalantly, "If you got a problem could you let me know before I die of old age? I'm not a Fae after all."

The Fae quickly composed himself, "There has been a small string of attacks near the Gardens of Ysa and the ones we sent first have yet to report back."

The mortal hopped up—much too chipper for such dire news, "Well then I better get going huh?"

She ran past the surprised Fae and right out the front doors. She, always ready for adventure, always had her weapons—that she made herself at the forge in Ironfast—on her. She had her sylvanite daggers—enchanted with mass poison and fire enchantments, which she was a master with, for getting close and personal. For mid-range she had her azurite chakrams—enchanted with a decent fire and lightning enchantment. For long range she had a simple ebony scepter.

She was almost half-way into The Lorca-Rane before she realized something was shooting arrows at her. She turned around and was surprised—coming from a woman that fought Rock Trolls and Jottun Chieftains daily, that is saying something. The thing attacking her looked like a Tuatha, but if it was a Tuatha it was horribly disfigured; it looked like it's flesh was rotting off. And it wasn't threatening her, but is was growling.

"You are one ugly Tuatha."

The woman wasted no time in blinking to the left, and fire back with her scepter. The blasts of pure mana did what they were supposed to; the creatures body was blown to bits. As the odd Tuatha died the woman felt a tingle and she knew,

"I can fateshift again."

As she said that there was a loud roar and she spun around and ended us staring into the face of three beasts that were as large if not slightly taller then a Jottun. The new beasts had massive horns and were nothing but muscle. She blinked to the left of the creatures and said, to herself,

"I might need to fateshift."

She blinked away two more times before she went on the offensive. She hit the creatures with a barrage of hits with her chakrams, and they seemed to be doing a decent amount of damage, but not enough. One of the creatures charged her and hooked her with it's horns before she could blink away. It used it's obvious muscles to lift and toss her a dozen feet away. When she got up she said, again to herself,

"I need to fateshift!"

And fateshift she did. The world slowed and was covered in a blue hue as she danced, with her daggers, around the horned creatures hitting them again and again and again before finally they went down and she did what only she could; she covered her arms in fate energy, forming two massive swords, and she drove them both into the beast's heart. She then tore it in two. She left the fateshift and upon leaving the other beasts dropped dead.

"How refreshing!" she said to herself, again, "To find something I actually have to try to kill."

She continued her trek towards the site where the attacks were happening and she found something odd. She found nothing. There was no trace of Tuatha, the new Tuatha, the horned beasts, sprites, or anything. She was so caught up in her surprise she almost didn't notice the strange mirror that stood out. Almost didn't notice. She was giddy, that was for sure. It had been a long time since she had been on a real quest or adventure. She was so caught up in her new found happiness that she completely forgot to be cautious around the out of place mirror.

She walked up to it and flicked it with her middle finger; nothing happened. She knocked on it; nothing happened. She dragged her daggers across it; nothing happened. She was frustrated; she kicked it. Something happened. The mirror started to glow and she felt herself being pulled toward it. She tried and tried again, but she couldn't stop moving toward it.

"Damn me for my adventuring spirit!"

Then she was pulled into the mirror.

\/\/\/\/\/

/\/\/\/\/\

"Tamlen, don't touch it!"

"I...I think I see something in the mirror."

Minasia rushed towards Tamlen, her childhood friend, but was too late in reaching him before the mirror exploded. The force of the explosion blew Minasia far away from where Tamlen had stood. The blast was too much for her and Minasia lost consciousness. The last thing she heard was a clank of weapons hit the floor.

Unknown to the unconscious elf there were two new people in the room. One was a being that looked like an elf. Only she had ebony skin and dark red hair and eyes. The other was a man with a decent beard and a small frown on his face.

"It seems I was too late in stopping them from activating the mirror. Curious though that another would come from the other side."

The man scooped both women up and placed each on opposite shoulders, and he walked towards the exit of the ruins. It took him a decent time longer to reach the Dalish camp then it did to reach the ruins. Probably due to the extra weight of the two women on his shoulders.

He chuckled, "I hope they never find out I was complaining about their weight."

He chuckled some more when they both seemed to kick him at the same time. His mirth didn't last for very long as he started to focus on the problem at hand; there was a being on his left shoulder that he has never seen before, and on his right shoulder was a Dalish elf that he could easily feel the taint in.

He sighed, "Marethari won't be happy to learn that she has lost two of her hunters."

He walked for another hour before the camp came into sight. He was not greeted with happy hellos, but he knew why; he was carrying one of their elves on his shoulder. He quickly made his way to the Keeper's tent after he entered the camp. She was already waiting for him.

"What has happened Duncan?"

Duncan carefully placed the elf and elf-like person on the ground, "There was a ruin nearby that held the taint of the darkspawn. I was on my way to destroy the source, and when I entered I found that all the darkspawn had been killed by your elves; this one," he pointed to Minasia, "and another I couldn't find."

"And who is this Duncan?" Marethari asked, pointing to the elf-like person.

"I do not know keeper, but you must use your magic if you wish for your elf to survive."

"And the other?"

Duncan glanced at the new being, "I don't sense the taint within her."

The Keeper just nodded. She immediately motioned Merrill, her first, to take the new being to a tent and to keep watch over her. After Merrill did as she was asked Marethari got to work on Minasia. She tried her hardest, used her most potent healing magic, prayed to the gods—all of them, but nothing seemed to help.

Duncan suggested doing something she never thought of before, but she trusted Duncan—even though he was a human—and what he suggested worked. The fever that Minasia had gotten had lessened and her risk of death seemed lessened as well, but Duncan informed her otherwise,

"That is not the case Keeper. She still has the taint, and the only cure for that is to join my ranks in the Grey Wardens."

"I had feared as much." Marethari sighed in defeat.

\/\/\/\/

/\/\/\/\

The first thing Nelda realized was that she was no longer by the mirror that she found in Lorca-Rane. She also realized, to her horror that her weapons had been taken from her. And if that wasn't enough, she placed her right hand on her right breast and moaned; her armor was gone as well.

"I spent weeks getting that trollhide."

It took Nelda a moment before she realized she wasn't alone. She ducked under the covers with an 'meep' noise. She raised her head as the man she didn't see earlier chuckled. She glared at the man. Well she tried to, but he looked a lot like her friend. Only instead of a blond beard he had a black or maybe just dark beard.

"'Meep' huh?"

Nelda narrowed her eyes, "Shut up!"

The man pointed to a table at the end of the bed, "Your arms and armor are under the table."

Nelda nodded.

The man continued, "After you are dressed and armed would you please come outside? There are things we, myself and the Keeper—the leader of the camp you have woken in, would like to ask you."

Nelda nodded and watched the man leave. She, as soon as he left, dove for her armor and weapons and got them equipped as soon as she could. She took a deep breath, and opened the tent. She walked out and looked around her and she saw what looked like human colored Fae.

"Damn my adventuring spirit."

\/\/\/\/\/\/

/\/\/\/\/\/\

A.N.

This was an idea that just popped into my head. R&R please.