Author's note: Welcome to Two Together, my Dragon Age Origins fanfic. This is going to be a semi AU fiction about what would have happened if Duncan had recruited 2 new grey wardens for the battle of Ostagar instead of just the player character. This is going to be quite long and I am trying to use as much of the original dialogue for the prelude as possible. I did not write any of the original dialogue from the game and do not own dragon age or profit in any way from this fanfic other than having a grand old time. I hope you enjoy the Prelude and stick around for the rest. Constructive criticism always appreciate!
Ps. As a side note, the name of the dalish elf, Ishafel is a corruption of a name that appeared in Robin Mckinnely's The blue sword. I liked it so much I used it here.
-Scarlet
Prologue
Will they tell stories about us, do you think?
Oh surely and in them, we will both be ten feet tall, you will have the power of invisibility, and I will be shooting lightening out of my eyes.
I'm sure the circle mages would love to see that trick. But it isn't really all that far from the truth is it?
Myth has a way of twisting the truth, making it more entertaining, I think.
You rather they be entertained, than remember truthfully?
Your folk are the keepers of the lost lore, why don't you keep the truth of our journey as well.
Maybe.
Prelude: Chapter 1- Mirror, Mirror
She came upon Tamlen in the wood easily, despite his experience in hiding his tracks. Hunters paid no attention to stealth when their prey was on the run. She dropped almost soundlessly into the clearing beside him.
"You arrived just in time. I found these humans lurking in bushes. Bandits, no doubt"
His arrow was already notched, the humans staring with fear at the pointed tip. She notched hers as well. The three men began to quiver even more, if it was even possible. Filthy Shems, she thought to herself, not a spine among them.
"What say you, Ishafel? What should we do with them."
Keeping her arrow trained on the humans, she moved closer, until she stood between them and Tamlen.
"Find out what the are doing here" she said her voice almost a growl. She looked directly into the eyes of the man who appeared to be the leader, and the man backed away at her menacing glare.
"Does it matter?" Tamlen sounded annoyed "Hunting or banditry, we need to move camp if we let them live."
The red haired leader gushed out willing answers. "Look, we didn't come here to be trouble. We just found a cave, t-to the south, with sum ruins in them and we thought there might be... might be..." His voice trialed off.
"So, more thieves than bandits" Tamlen disproved, the string on his bow tightened.
Ishafel rolled her eyes inwardly. He always was one for the dramatic.
"Ha! I'd like to see these ruins." Ishafel had hunted in the Brecilian forest before, she had found no ruins
before. How could a shemlen just stumble across something like that?
She could tell from the stern expression on Tamlen's face that he was thinking the same.
"So would I. I've never heard of ruins in these parts before."
"Its true, we swear." The man on the right had grown brave, "We found this at the entrance.
Tamlen took the stone from him. A moments examination and a shocked look stole across his face.
"Is this Elvish? Written Elvish?"
Ishafel lowered her bow is surprise as she came to gaze on the stone.
"How do you know it's elvish, Tam?"
"It the same as on the keeper's scrolls, the ones she will not let us see."
"Was there any more like this? She barked at the humans as her finger scrolled along the carved text.
"We didn't get far, there was – was a demon with hungry black eyes. We r-ran, ran into you, as it was."
The stammer in his voice suggested that they were both scarier than any demon. Tamlen slipped the stone into his pocket and once more brought up his bow.
"Well, Lethallan? What do we do with them? They will bring others to burn us out if we let them live."
Three pairs of eyes looked at Ishafel. Was she kind? She had known to be.
But not to shem.
"Kill one. The others will not tell..." She gave a glare of promise "or else."
The two humans behind the red haired leader broke into a run. The man stumbled back, tripping over a tree root.
"You can't do this!" voice rose an octave in fear. Tamlen simply leased the arrow.
"Now then, how about we find those ruins, they said it was towards the west?"
He gazed over the ridge in the direction that the humans had come from.
"Should we not inform the keeper about..." she gestured to the body.
"The humans will stay quiet, you were kind enough to give them a warning." he tossed up the stone and closed his fingers around it. "Come on, lethallan. Are you afraid of demons too?"
He didn't wait for Ishafel's answer, rather he turned determinedly south and forged ahead. She shook her head and smiled slightly at his back before walking into the green and gold morning of the Brecilian forest.
The shem lay forgotten.
Tamlen took long strides down the steep encampment. The ground took a sudden turn and began to wind brokenly downward. Odd, Ishafel thought to herself. The forest was full of ridges and canyons but a place that led so far into the ground was uncommon. More unsettling still was that the sounds of the forest seemed to bleed away the farther down they traveled. Other than some wolves savaging a halla, wolves that were quickly dispatched, there was no wildlife anywhere. Foreboding began to creep over Ishafel's shoulders like a shadow. Something was not right. A dead halla was a bad omen. Tamlen seemed not to notice or care, but then he was always one to be a little reckless.
Take that brawl the other day...
As quickly as she thought it up, Ishafel put it out of her mind. She knew that many of her clan thought that she and Tamlen would bond one of these days, but the matter had never been discussed between them. Clan-mates and the best friends anyone had ever seen, that's all they were to each other. Except... It wasn't often that two clans passed each other, the forest was quite large and not all clans were at peace with each other. This clan's keeper claimed a prior association with Keeper Marethari and stopped for the night to visit. Hunters always showed respect for each other, but even the Dalish had men that were not respectful to women. As tight knit as the clans were, it was common for hunters to look for a bride outside their own clan. The foreign hunter had expressed an interest to Ishafel. She had promptly turned him down. Grabbing her arm, he made something which sounded vaguely like a threat. Her response was a comment on his breath. Her own hunters giggled. But then the elf had said something about going the same way as her mother, and the phrase 'dirty whore' had been used.
Ishafel didn't have time to register the comment before Tamlen had punched the other man across the jaw, although she had wasted no time wading into the fray. All in all, ten hunters had various scrapes and bruises and there was ill will on all sides. Tamlen and the offending foreigner had been given a lecture in proper dalish behavior and would hunt for the aravels of the children and the old in addition to themselves for a few weeks. Tamlen had refused to give her up as an instigator. She was not unnerved about the fight. On the contrary, if the situation had been reversed she would have done the same. It was that somewhere in the brawl she had almost sworn she had heard him claim her as his bond-mate to the other man. But she was not sure and it would seem more than silly to check with another hunter who had been at the fight. They would laugh at her, and Ishafel's feelings were as such that she could not stand to be laughed at. The broken land gave way to a gulley of fallen trees and brambles, and just when seemed that the shem's story may have been false, stately marble arches rose from the ground.
"Ah! Tamlen said in triumph "What do we have here?" avoiding the thorns by using his bow, he cleared a snag of brambles to reveal a cavelike ruin sloping downward into the earth.
It did not feel right. Not at all.
"This must be the cave." he said proudly, but he seemed to be as puzzled as she was. "I don't recall seeing this before, do you?"
"No, and that worries me. We should be wary."
"Always the careful one. Fine, but I'm not running back until I know there's something worth making a fuss over."
He climbed into the cave and it was a few moments before he realized that Ishafel was not beside him.
"Come on, let's at least see what's there. How dangerous could it be?"
Another moment passed before she hesitantly climbed in after him. After all, it was only a cave. She'd been in dozens of caves. The entrance was gnarled and old, snared by roots from above. The first thing she saw was a cocoon, never a good sign.
"Spiders" Tamlen said softly. The creatures had webbed the earth above their heads, creating a lattice network that seemed to stretch out as far as the cave went in. They would have to be careful. Ishafel didn't want to end up a spider's dinner. There were even a few overhead now, each with eight beady eyes focused elsewhere. They had not been noticed yet. Tamlen titled his head, pointing towards a side corridor, together they stayed to the side of the wall. The spiders moved on.
"Well, that was easy." he said as they started forward into the ruin. The further they went the greater the feeling of discomfort became. The air was thick as the spider web on the ceiling, but they continued to push forward anyway. She had not even noticed Tamlen's discomfort until he spoke.
"This place makes me nervous." Tamlen said, keeping his voice quiet. They moved past the spiders nest and emerged in what once was a large room, now it was largely collapsed in on itself, with dirt and debris littering the floor.
"What do you think all this is?" Ishafel's voice was not spare in wonder. She had never seen anything like this before, she had heard of ruins of course, but nothing as strange as this.
"I'm not sure. This looks like a very old human building. Why did they build this? And why would eleven artifacts be here."
Ishafel popped open a chest. "Not just artifacts. This is gear. They were not slaves." she traced her finger down the rough designs on the gloves.
"Maybe some of our ancestors lived here in caves like the dwarves. I'll stick to roaming the land myself."
They continued down a long stone passage, the strange feelings that she had before were waning and she looked at the architecture with real interest.
"So why did you want to come down here so badly?"
He gave her a boyish grin. "Aren't you curious? We could be discovering our history. Minstrels will write songs about us!"
The word "us" echoed off of the antechamber they entered.
Tamlen hesitated as she disarmed a trap.
"You aren't fooling me, Tamlen." She smile slightly. He was cute when he lied, Sheepish. A very Un-hunter-like giggle rose up in her chest and spilled into the room. Minstrels indeed!
"Well" he fiddled with his bowstring, adjusting it in response to spiders on the floor. "I thought if we were to bring back some great ancestral artifact the keeper might forgive me for, well, you know..."
She knew. The clan rending brawl. A brawl full of hopes and misunderstandings. Was this the time or place to discuss what she had heard? or thought she had heard, Ishafel corrected her thoughts ruthlessly.
"We were both brawling. I don't see why you got punished."
"Because I was caught and wouldn't give up any names. Of course she was angry with me."
She smiled at him playfully, "Thanks for covering for me, by the way. I got out of all that hunting because of you."
"Of course, you know I'd do anything for you." the last part came out so naturally, and he seemed so unfazed by it that it couldn't be any sort of confession. But the air, which was already silent, also grew quiet. Ishafel couldn't stand it. "Anything?" she said in a sing song voice, trying to relieve the sudden tension. "would you wrestle a bear with only your hands? Would you run naked through the camp? Would you stuff Merrill's robes with itching powder?"
Tamlen made a face and rolled his eyes. "Hey, weren't you supposed to be assisting Master Varathorn today? How did you end up coming with me?"
"You know me. I get away from camp whenever I can."
Somehow she noted in the way his laughter seem slightly forced, that maybe that was not the answer he was hoping for.
"I've never met anyone so eager to wander, I'll bet you end up in the city some day, living like a shem."
"Hey!" she said as the insult hit it's mark. Quietly she added "I wanted to be with you, of course."
Now that caught his attention. The passage they were in had become very narrow, so much so that they were nearly shoulder to shoulder. He turned to face her and the look on his face was of all things, uncertain.
If possible things grew even more quiet, and even more still.
"I...had hoped that might be the case. I'm glad."
He moved to brush a stray black strand from her face, and his hand continued down to cup her cheek. Very slowly, as though she were a halla that would bolt at sudden movement, he leaned down and very softly kissed her. The feeling was feather light and strangely new, but it elicited a sudden burst of action from her. Grabbing his forearms, Ishafel pulled him into the kiss more firmly. His lips parted slightly and her tongue brushed against them teasingly. His tongue darted out, and they dueled together for a long moment. When Tamlen finally pulled back to lean against the wall, he was out of breath. He had pulled Isahfel with him, and her head rested in the crook of his shoulder. She laughed softly, he wasn't sure at what, but he didn't mind. He himself was grinning rather wolfishly at the moment. He had always suspected, more hoped than suspected, but you could never quite tell with Ishafel. She had an way of being unpredictable with important situations. She came up to kiss him and they held each other
for a shorter moment until Tamlen once again pulled back, he kissed her forehead chastely.
"This is not the place for this discussion," he could not keep the merriment out of his voice. "But rest assured, Isha, we shall finish it when we get back to camp."
She seemed suddenly to remember their surroundings.
"Of course" she was still smiling. As she pulled away from him an dull glimmer caught her eye.
"What is that?"
She moved beyond Tamlen to the statue in the alcove. Talmen started when he saw it.
"I can't believe this You recognize this statue don't you?"
"It's worn but looks vaguely familiar.
"Back when our people lived in Arlathan, statues like these honored the creators. When the shems enslaved us, much of that lore was lost. This looks like human architecture... with a statue of our people. Can these ruins date back to the time of Arthalan?
"Perhaps, but there isn't much left down here."
The feeling of foreboding was back, and it was then that she notice the door.
"Was that there before?" she asked puzzled and moved forward, toward it.
She did not know how she missed the trap, but a cloud of sick green smoke poured forth. Materializing from nowhere were four skeletons. They shambled forward, raising their weapons high. Slashing though the smoke, they made short work of them.
"Were those risen corpses? I'm beiging to think this place is haunted."
"We should return to the keeper, she'll want to know about this place."
"Come on, Ishafel. Just a little farther? This one last room. Tamlen opened the door and step inside. Despite her better judgement, Ishafel followed.
A loud roar issued from inside the cavern and Ishafel was suddenly thrown against the wall by a creature from nightmare. It looked like a bear with it's skin on inside out. Spines stuck up from its flesh. Rotted meat scented its breath as it's jaws went for her throat. She head Tamlen's sword thunk into the muscles on the creatures side. It rounded on him, and she was free. Grabbing a Dar'Misu from her back, she slid under the creature and cut it's throat. It reared one final time before collapsing on it's side and giving a final death shudder. They both stood and gawked at the creature.
"By the creators, Wha-What was that thing?" Tamlen stuttered.
Ishafel just shook her head mutely, and looked up.
Tamlen followed her gaze.
It was mirror, Perfectly untouched by time and it must have been very old considering the state of the ruins.
It's beautiful isn't it? I wonder what the writing says." Tamlen approached it, but Ishafel stayed by the corpse, her nerves were singing "run run run" in rapid succession.
Carved in white marble, the looking glass was polished to an eerie sheen. It was quite beautiful.
"Stand back, We can't be sure it's safe."
"It stood here for how many centuries, I'm sure its not dangerous. I just want to see the writing- hey did you see that? I think something move inside the mirror."
"Get away from it, Tamlen..." She move forward to grab his arm, but the swipe was in vain.
Hold on, I just want to see what it is. Can you feel that. It knows we're here. It's showing me places, a city underground? And a great darkness..." He ran his fingers down the glass. Ishafel charged up the steps of the looking glass, intending to wrench him away from whatever seemed to hold him there.
"It-It sees me!" his voice broke in horror. "Help, I can't look away!"
She lunged for him and there was a great flash. She felt a terrible scorching sensation in her eyes as the world abruptly burned to blackness. The last thing that she heard before passing into unconsciousness was an unfamiliar voice
"I am so very sorry."