AN: Okay, I have only ever written Mass Effect fanfiction but when I started playing Dragon age, I just couldn't not.
This might be a one-shot, or it might be a prologue. Depends on how much this idea takes root in my mind.
Which it kind of already has... Gah!
Also, I have not finished the game yet. I think that I'm probably solidly in the middle right now, so please, if you're going to leave a review (which would be awesome of you), no spoils. This is my first playthrough.
Also, note to Bioware: I both love and hate you guys in equal measure. I am incapable of putting down a Bioware game, but I have stuff that I need to do!
You guys suck for being so awesome!
"Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if this hadn't happened to you?"
Lia quirked an eyebrow at the random question as she sat at the edge of Morrigan's little secluded section of camp. The two mages had struck up an odd friendship. Lia knew that Morrigan's attitude could be a particularly harsh one at times - cruel, even - and she completely understood Alistair's problems with her, but she simply took it in stride. Morrigan held no punches, and Lia had to admit that she liked that about her.
"You mean if I hadn't become a Grey Warden?"
"Exactly," Morrigan replied, in her usual, blunt manner, confusing Lia further. "Why are you looking at me as if I have sprouted another head?"
Lia shrugged. "Just... it's not a question I expected from you."
Morrigan sighed at that. "I only ask because you've been living within your own head far more than usual these past few days."
Lia smiled a little at that. "Getting worried about me?"
Morrigan rolled her eyes. "Deflecting with humour. I wonder where you picked up that character trait. Forget I even asked."
Lia's smile faded a little as her gaze wandered over the camp. "It wouldn't matter," she muttered in response. "Even if I hadn't become a Grey Warden, I would still-"
She stopped herself there.
Because, honestly, she didn't know where she would have been. Maybe locked up for helping Jowan. And, even if she had been forgiven, would she really have wanted the Chantry's forgiveness? She had always understood the need for the Circle and the Templars but... understanding did not vanquish all of her bitterness. The knowledge that she would always be bound by their laws.
In truth, she was no more restricted now than she had ever been, but the ties that bound her - weighted things such as honour and duty that she felt no real affinity for - seemed tighter now. Maybe because before she had never had a taste of what life outside might have been like. But now she knew better.
Her eye wandered the far end of the campsite until they were met, catching her off guard as she felt her face heat with a growing blush, and she knew she had her answer.
"No, Morrigan, I don't wonder. If I hadn't become a Grey Warden, I wouldn't be here now, with all of you."
She had to admit that her recent conversation with Wynne had brought home some things she had been avoiding. She had been so caught up in everything, anything beyond the Blight was simply unthinkable. But... during their recent trip to the Fade, when she had seen what the demons had offered him; a safe, stable life far from even the thought of war, surrounded by family.
Even if neither of them had been chosen to be Grey Wardens, they still would have been bound to other lives of restriction. There would never have been a better ending.
"You mean here with Alistair?" Morrigan asked, observing her friend's reactions.
Lia shrugged. "It was this or the tower. And, let's face it, another day in that place and I might have gone insane."
"Had I been in your place, I would have flung myself from that tower long ago..."
Lia smirked a little at that before deciding that she was simply too exhausted for talk of might-have-beens, or for any talk at all, for that matter.
She may not have a safe, stable life far from even the thought of war, surrounded by family, but she did have the warm embrace of her love as she slept.
And that was more than enough for her.