Prologue:

Green Dales, Free Marches
9:30 Dragon

Asherialla Stalked through the autumn forest with the silence only an elf could accomplish. Her posture bent forward slightly and her pointed ears perked for any noise. In Her grasp was a staff should danger arrive.

'Crack' a barely audible snapping of a twig told Asherialla that someone was behind her. She quickly whipped around and jabbed her stalker in the chest with her staff, knocking him on the ground. Asher placed a bare foot on her would be assailant's chest with the staff pointed at his face.

"Okay, I give," Fayriman Lavellan yielded as he dropped the stick in his hands.

"Hah! I win Keepers and Smiters again!" Ten year old Asherialla cheered as she waved the fallen tree branch she was using as a mage's staff in the air.

"You always win Keepers and Smiters, Asher" Fayriman, a ten year old elven boy, pointed out. He then sniffed the air before saying, "Did you try to cast a fire spell again?"

"Yea…" Asher admitted as she touched her midnight dark hair that was singed short by the spell backfiring on her. Though she was the Keeper's First, she had a long way to go before she could properly control her magic.

"Anyway, have you seen Ylthirn? We were supposed to be watching her," Fayriman said as he stood up. He then brushed himself off before looking around in hopes of finding their friend. Asher looked as well to no avail.

"We'd best find her," the girl elf said as she picked a direction and headed that way.

"Ylthirn!" Fayriman shouted as they walked along. But Asher quickly covered her friend's mouth to silence him. He quickly shoved her hand off in protest. He then said just as loudly, "What was that about?"

"Shush!" Asher ordered with a finger to her lips to accentuate her point, "Listen,"

The two listened carefully. Soon enough, they both heard distant shouting accompanied by whimpering. The two shared a look before breaking into a sprint through the uneven forest terrain. After a quick run they came to a stop at the edge of a clearing where a number of armored adults stood in a camp. Their Ylthirn tied to a tree.

"Who are they?" Asher heard Fayriman ask as she looked at the adults. They were armored, but not like the guardians of their clan who wore leather and wood. What these adults wore looked like rock, but smooth and shiny. It was then that Fayriman asked what Asher was thinking, "You think they're Shemlen?"

"Yea…" Asher whispered. She then looked to Ylthirn. She was still struggling to free herself from the rope that tied her to the tree, "We need to free her,"

"Are you crazy?" Fayriman whispered back. His expression full of shock, "We need to get back to the clan. Tell Deshanna and Grevhiel and leave it to our warriors,"

"By then they would have taken Ylthirn away," Asher heatedly countered, "Look it will just be like Keepers and Smiters,"

"Just trust me okay," Asher insisted as she moved to get a better view of the camp. Only five shemlen were visible, but more could be in the tents, "When I distract them, go free Ylthirn, okay?"

"Okay, I trust you," Fayriman assured as he moved towards Ylthirn, making sure to avoid being sighted by the shemlen.

Asher moved in the opposite direction, away from Fayriman and Ylthirn while circling the clearing through the low brush. Once she was on the opposite side of the camp from where Ylthirn was being held. She closed her eyes and concentrated on summoning a small ball of fire. Trying to feel the warmth of the energy within her and focus it through her fingertips. Imagining the heat growing stronger and stronger like Keeper Deshanna had instructed her numerous times.

When Asher opened her eyes, a small flame flickered above the palm of her outstretched hand. Were it not for the dire situation she and her friends where in, she would be giddy with excitement for being able to properly summon the spell. Now she just needed to will it forward.

Her target, one of the shemlen tents, was a few yards in front of her. She didn't want to risk getting spotted by walking up and placing the flame against the fabric. So she hand to move it forward like a projectile. Easier said than done.

"Come on," Asher whispered while willing the flame forward. The little flame moved beyond her grasp and floated towards the tent, but at a very slow pace. And it was hurting Asher's head just to move it at all!

"Please, please, please," Asher whispered just as a shemlen walked by, noticed the flame. His expression turned to shock as he shouted for his fellows over to him. He then looked around and saw Asher. This caused her to panic, forcing the flame to expand unintentionally before engulfing the tent, the field between Asher and said tent, as well as the shemlen who spotted her.

As the shemlen screamed in agony. Asher broke into a run around the perimeter of the camp to see if she could find her friends. She just saw Fayriman and Ylthirn running before she was tackled by one of the shemlen, practically crushing her with the weight of his armor. He quickly got up before picking her up by her left wrist.

"I got one!" The shemlen shouted to his fellows in a gravelly voice that terrified Asher, she pushed her free hand against his bearded face, somehow igniting it with another fire spell she did not remember conjuring. The man quickly dropped her as he struggled to extinguish his beard. Asher barely managed to pull herself onto her knees before she saw a streak of white go across her vision and her whole face burning in pain. As she clutched her face in agony, she felt an even greater pain erupt from her stomach. This time she fell back to the ground. Through her red fingers, she could just make out a series of arrows flying into the remaining shemlen.

Then everything went dark.

Frostback Mountains, Fereldan

9:42 Dragon, Present day

"I implore you Cassandra! You are grasping at air!" Nightingale Liliana insisted as she, her partner Cassandra Pentaghast, and a dwarf by the name of Varric walked through the open gate leading to the makeshift camp situated at the opening of the valley that led to the now-ruined Temple of Sacred Ashes.

"Yea Seeker, please listen to your friend here, I have nothing to do with this," The dwarf named Varric pleaded as he was being dragged by the handcuffs attached to his wrists.

"Silence your forked tongue Varric," Cassandra spat as they walked through the camp and into a tomb dug into the side of a mountain. As they walked down the steps Varric felt a sense of déjà vu from when Cassandra dragged him into the Hawke Estate cellar to be interrogated.

Soon enough, they reached the bottom of the steps and entered the main room lined with urns placed into shelfs carved into the very stone walls of the crypt. But what held Varric's attention was a ring of six seekers pointing their swords at two figures in the middle of the room, one was clearly an elf with a bald head tending to the second figure who lay on the ground unconscious with the hands and feet shackled. At their arrival, the bald one stood up and quickly said, "Seeker Cassandra? Nothing has changed with the prisoner, you don't need to-"

"Move out of the way Solas," Cassandra order as she briskly walked up to the unconscious form and grabbed her by the shoulders – against Solas and Leliana's behest – and held her up, still unconscious, to Varric's face, "Do you know this elf?"

Varric looked at the sleeping face of the elf before him. She was obviously dalish, given her vallaslin, her short hair was midnight black, and her face was youthful with the skin slightly tan, likely from spending time in the sun. She also had a long thin scar across her face, leading from her left temple to her upper right cheek.

"You expect me to know her?" Varric asked.

"You told me that there was a dalish blood mage in your little group with Hawke!" Cassandra shouted, "So you tell me!"

Varric did a quick once over again before looking back at Cassandra, "Merrill didn't have a scar,"

"She could have gained that scar since you two last met," Leliana suggest indifferently.

"That last meeting was five years ago, this one seems faded, much older than that perhaps," Varric said, "Besides, Daisy would be in her early thirties by now, this elf seems as young as when I first met her,"

"Augh" Cassandra shoved the unconscious elf to the ground and stormed out. Solas quickly ran to the elf's side and started using healing magic on her again.

"You know Seeker," Varric called to Cassandra, who stopped in her tracks, but did not turn to look at the dwarf, "You're not the only one scared shitless about that rupture in the sky. I wish I could tell you who this was if it would help,"

"Hmph," With that, Cassandra continued on.

"So who is this?" Varric asked Leliana.

"No idea, all we know is that she stumbled out of a rift near the blast sight," Leliana answered as a lime green light suddenly enveloped the room. Varric looked to the source, finding a scar upon the elf's left hand igniting in a green flame.