When Ezra Mahariel left his clan to join the Grey Wardens he never thought about how much his life would change. He would fall in love. He would kill hundreds, even thousands of darkspawn. Most importantly he would go on to save Ferrelden.

Ezra Mahariel was one of the few elves in his clan who liked to sleep in past the sunrise. Many of the other elves like to be up early to see the sunrise and begin their daily tasks. But Ezra could finish his tasks fairly quickly even without being up that early. But not that day...

Ezra and his clan mate Tamlen were hunting in the forests near their camp that day. Ezra was in a grouchy mood because he was woken up at the first sign of light. It didn't help that shemlen were found near their camp. The two hunter elves chased the men until they cornered him.

"Its a Dalish!" one of the Shems exclaimed.

"And you are somewhere you shouldn't be," Tamlen said icily pointing his bow at the man.

"Let us pass, elf," the man spat the word elf like it was a disease. "You have no right to stop us!"

"No? We will see about that won't we?" Ezra side stepped from his hiding place bow pointed at the shem. The men gulped and backed down, there was no way they could take two hunting elves. Not that they could have even taken one hunting elf in the first place.

"Bandits I presume?" Ezra asked.

"We aren't bandits, I swear! Please don't hurt us!"

"You shemlen are pathetic. It's hard to believe you ever drove us from our homeland." Tamlen and Ezra stepped forward, their grips on their bows never loosening.

"W-We've never done nothing to you Dalish! We didn't even know this forest was yours!"

"This forest isn't ours fool. You've stumbled a little too close to our camp. You shems are vermin..we can't trust you not to make mischief," Tamlen said glaring at the man who had just spoke. He hid behind the other men and was definitely the weakest of the group. "What do you say, Lethallin? What should we do with them?"

"Let them go. You judge humans much too harshly," Ezra answered. "Besides how dangerous could these three be?"

"Does it matter? Hunting or banditry, we'll need to move camp if we let them live!"

"L-look... we didn't come here to be trouble. We just found a cave.."

"Yes, a cave! With ruins like I've never seen! We thought there might be uh..."

"Treasure. So you're more akin to thieves than actual bandits," Tamlen interrupted.

"I'd like to see these ruins you claim are nearby," Ezra said.

"So would I. I've never heard of ruins in these parts." Tamlen and Ezra were in agreement, as per usual.

"I.. I have proof! Here... we found this just inside the entrance." The one shem, the leader probably, handed over an artifact to Tamlen while Ezra kept his bow ready.

"This stone has carvings...Elvish? Is this written elvish?"

"There's more in the ruins! We didn't get very far in though..."

"How do you know this is actually Elvish Lethallin?" Ezra asked. For all Tamlen knew it could've been just random symbols.

"I've seen something similar on the keeper's scrolls," Tamlen answered. He returned his attention back to the trespassers. "And this is all you found? Why didn't you look for more?"

"There was a demon! It was huge, with black eyes! Thank the Maker we were able to out-run it!"

"A demon?" Tamlen scoffed. "Where is this cave?"

"Just off to the west, I think. There's a cave in the rock face, and a huge hole inside," the leader answered looking at his men. They nodded in agreement.

"Well? Do you trust them? Shall we let them go?" Tamlen asked.

"Let's let them go. No need to upset the keeper." Ezra lowered his bow and Tamlen did the same.

"Run along then, shems.. and don't come back until we Dalish have moved on!" The men ran off thanking the elves for their lives and soon were out of sight.

"Well then shall we see if there's any truth to their story? These carvings make me curious," Tamlen said with a grin. He was always one for adventure.

"Sounds like a plan."

"And if we find anything, the keeper will want to know."

Ezra and Tamlen ran down to the rock face and discovered the shemlen were telling the truth. There was cave and inside were demons, huge spiders and moving corpses. There was also a mirror, it looked to be elvish. Ezra warned Tamlen not to touch the mirror but Tamlen didn't listen. The last thing Ezra remembered was a bright flash of light erupting from the mirror and then being surrounded in a great blackness.