Chapter 1: What I Wanted

I always thought my story was an unremarkable one, I used to sneak out from the Denerim Alienage and sneak into the castle library. No one in the alienage knew how to write or read, I taught myself by sneaking into the castle again and again but no one knew or they would probably tell me I was suited to the life of an Antivan Crow if I was lucky but that's not where my heart lie. I used to sneak in just to read the stories, stories from centuries past, stories of the Hero and how he lead the world to victory over the blight, Hard in Hightown, I've always wanted to meet Mr. Tethras. I made corrections to history books, leaving notes where the stories seemed to leave out massive gaps but one day my reading style changed.

As usual the Alienage Orphans would come round to torment me, as I still had a mother they would take out their frustrations, throws rocks, cover me in mud, you know the drill. But one day, it glowed. I was a mage, a light lit in my life that day as the I felt the raw power surge through my veins but every around me looked afraid, far more afraid then I'd seen them around any other mage, as the glow in my hand grew to a dagger, a small blade of light in my hand. No one in my alienage, nay in Denerim had seen anything like it before but I knew what it wanted. It wanted me to fight.

From that day on, the people shunned me. Not that the other Elves in the Alienage were friendly already. All I needed was my Mother, a loving and kind woman despite that had happen to her. See she was raped by a Human lord when she was barely a teenager, and the result of that Rape was me. I am what the Elves call, Amorgal or Child Born of a Beast as the ancient elves had few words for Shem during their time, it also seemed to affect my Vallaslin as I seemed to only trail under my right eye. And usually Amorgal was followed by the usual "Let the Dread Wolf take you", eventually they just said it enough to be shortened. So they call me Mordred, not my real name of course but I prefer it, my real name is like the Elven equivalent of John. So common it might as well be forgettable.

But yes, I am Mordred and this is the tale of how I used to sneak into the Denerim castle and learn magic. The castle library was a small, piddle thing and the guards never seemed to be around enough for them to catch me. I Learned and I Learned till each time the sun rose in the morning but I think I was good enough, my favourite was Lightning magic even if I nearly alerted the guards that time I set a copy of Sword & Shields on fire, no one's gonna miss that book. I learned to manifest that dagger again, but that was still difficult as nothing in the library spoke of magic summoning weaponry. Maybe I could learn to summon a sword, I thought but without even holding a sword in my hand how would I know.

Also don't use Fade Step when you're sneaking, it leaves a bright blue aura that practically tells everyone you're there.

I had snuck back to the alienage and even my house that morning luckily, without anyone noticing me…well…

"Harel, what are you doing sneaking out again?! You don't want the guards to catch you" yelled my Mother,

"Buuut Muum~ I got some good books this time. I should be able to make that fire magic right this time to help you cook, bring in the money"

"I told you son, I do that for the Alienage. Not for Money" She was always a kind woman, as she came down to me and held my hands together "And no magic son, or you'll cause trouble with the Shem's Templars, you're just lucky the Alienage hates Shems more than you"

"They don't see me, I'm really careful" I told her, before muttering to myself "…careful enough to sneak into the castle every night"

"I knew it! I told you not to go to the castle again!" She yelled, he voice still full of caring "…I wish I could give you all the books you wanted son, but we can't have them. You'll get the whole alienage in trouble if they catch you"

"…well I will make sure they don't catch me" as I walked out of the house in a huff.

It was a while later, my temperament was never so high with my mother that I lost control when angry, the books always said beware of Rage Demons and the threat they could enter your mind. And so I slept, I took a sleep under that pitiful tree standing in the middle of town, luckily having the alienage afraid of me they left me to my rest.

But it was not an easy sleep, the fade was connecting with me I would later learn. I saw visions, I always remember that first one. Knight legions of Knights, no… Elves, an army, a commander, Blazing fire, roaring rain interlaced with music, a bald elf, a mirror broken, no formed all around us, a black dragon, the archdemon I heard so much about, another person standing before it, a glowing sword like my dagger…he…notices me, he reaches out his hand, I'm falling as he falls with me, fear, courage, stand and as I stand the falling stops, the man stands before me again and I see the person strip away like fog. It is a spirit. I try to speak to it but my words are muffled, I can hear it trying to speak back but it too is muffled, all I make out is one word. Imagine.

I jumped awake in a sweat, as I woke startled I quickly surveyed my surroundings to find a Templar on horseback talking to the elves round the village, I instinctively jumped behind the tree, such a pathetic hiding place I found as I ran back home quickly.

"Mum, MUM!" I yelled in a panic "Templars, Templars they're here!"

But Mum wasn't home, Mum had told me horror stories about the Templars, and about some of the awful treatment they put Mages through. I remember thinking, why? I hadn't done anything, stupid trouble making mages why did they have to do that and ruin my life. How foolish I was. It became dark and time had passed so quickly while I was hiding under the stairs, I wasn't going to go to the castle tonight, not with Templars around, and even my mum returned home late.

"Harel? Harel?! You Home?" she called for me hopefully

"MUM!" I rushed to her quickly and hugged her stomach "The Templars…were here…I saw them…"

"Templars? I didn't see any" She responded curiously

And with a touch of fate, at that moment there was a loud hearty knock at the door.

"All Alienage Citizen's must exit their houses and report to the centre immediately" The voices ordered as they banged and repeated the order across all the houses.

With a lump in my throat, and clutching my Mum's clothes tightly we both walked carefully and gingerly out to the alienage.

"Ummm…Hello there everyone" said a nervous but friendly voice "I'm sorry to disturb you all so late but we have a problem"

It was King Alistair, I had never minded King Alistair and that was rare for Shems. He was always seemingly nice and I had heard how all the alienages had improved standard since Alistair became king. I would have breathed a sigh of relief, if not for the fact he was likely here to bust me for my braking into his library and the fact that he was a former Templar didn't help.

"…there has been an unfortunate break in…" I held my breath and hid behind my mother "in this alienage"

What? I thought, he's not here for me. Wait again? Someone broke into the alienage?

"What about the things you promised us? When can we leave this accursed slum? Aren't we Denerim Citizens now?" Yelled older voices from the crowd

"Look…it's big…messy ball… of… things" Alistair struggled to explain "we're trying to expand the city to accommodate you all and quell the people enough to accept it…but that's not why I'm here"

I'd read stories about Alistair and the Hero in the books, he never seemed the kind of man to want power, it had seemed to make him honest. An honest man in power…among Shems, I must be mad.

"There…is a demon, in this Alienage" Alistair said with a suddenly stern face "We believe it's some form of Desire demon but we haven't been able to pin it down"

The voices of the alienage turned to panic behind, screaming Desire demon's do this and Desire demons do that. They need to read more I thought, Desire Demons rarely attack on mass, more working like a plague to spread decent amongst its followers. If they weren't so simple minded I thought, but even I didn't know everything.

Alistair gave his warning as he swept the alienage with some Templars he insisted he trusted so we could as well, luckily our Alienage barely trust Shems as it is and that I'm not the only mage in the alienage or I felt they would have ratted me out then and there.

For the next couple of days, I could feel everyone's eyes on me, the only eyes I cared about were my mothers and they were still full of love as always. But what I didn't know at the time, was that it was my fault and the Orange light that followed behind me grew brighter every day.