The Circle
The Warden opened the door and was struck by the sight of the ugliest creature she had ever seen. It was an abomination, that was clear, with horrible pieces of metal stuck through its scarred and skinless face. The face was so scarred that instead of a mouth, the abomination had a flap of purple gnarled skin. When it spoke, she wondered where the sound could come from, and the skin stretched and writhed at every word. "Aren't you tired of all the violence in this world? Wouldn't you like to just lay down and forget about all this? Leave it all behind." The Warden's vision narrowed as she tried to focus on the face of the abomination. She thought that maybe it's ugliness would keep her awake because it was certainly ugly enough to peel the paint off a fence.
From behind her she heard an older woman's voice that she couldn't place "Resist! You must resist or else we are lost!" She wanted to retort that she was trying to resist, but she didn't have the energy. The demon's wispy green spell swirled around her, and her eyelids felt heavy.
"You deserve more. You deserve a rest." The demon continued as The Warden lost all consciousness.
Lyna Mahariel
Lyna felt a lump on her temple as she pulled herself out of the dirt and squeezed the stars out of her eyes. The tree branch she had ran into was looming menacingly over her head. "Run!" she heard someone shout after she had gotten to her feet, and it was a moment before she realized that it was her own voice she heard over the pounding of her footsteps on the packed dirt. An arrow whizzed past her ear and stuck into the bark of a tree as she ran past. Stupid shem, she thought. A Dalish would have had that through my head, if they'd actually wanted to kill me. She knew that the shems behind her wanted to kill her, that they were chasing her as if she'd murdered their children in their sleep.
Ahead, she saw a cliff face and she knew that they'd be safe soon. They? Who is with me? Who was I shouting to? But she didn't really have time to puzzle out the blanks in her memory. As she ducked through the brush, she heard the shems shout to each other as they tried to deduce her location. She smiled to herself as she realized that the shemlens had lost sight of her. They won't find me now because stupid shems are hopeless in the forest. She walked through the trees, each step slow and deliberate, as she carefully left no tracks and made no noise.
When she arrived at the face of the cliff, the sounds of chirping birds were much louder than the shems tromping through the forest. She studied the markings on the cliff and she saw what she had hoped to find: a reddish brown stain, which looked like nothing more than an unusual color of stone, but actually marked a cave that the Dalish sometimes stayed in as they traveled to the Brecilian Forest to visit another clan of Dalish that lived there. She carefully navigated the rocks, and the sun was setting by the time she pulled back the loam from the entrance to the cave. Once inside she pulled the enchanted globe from the pouch on her waist and illuminated it, casting the entrance to the cave in a magical glow. She had never been more glad for this glowstone which was given to her by the keeper as a gift on the day that she came of age.
Farther back in the cave she heard a rock drop. Something was in the cave with her, and with a wave of her hand, she stopped the stone's light. Without the comforting blue light, the cave seemed darker than before she had turned the light on. The other in the cave couldn't be a shemlen. She was certain of that much. Any shem who could have made it here ahead of her would have made a lot more noise. They were hopeless in the forest. This left two options. It was either an elf or a beast. She replaced the glowstone into her pouch and launched an arrow towards the darkness.
"Lyna?" A hushed voice whispered urgently.
Who is here with me and how does he know my name? "Who is it?"
"Praise the Creators! You know, you almost hit me with that arrow."
She lit the glowstone again, and it was overly bright in the darkness of the cave, so she could not see who it was beyond a sandy-blonde blur. From his voice, she would have guessed he was about her age. He gasped when he noticed the cut on her face, and she dimmed the glowstone so she could see him as well as he could see her.
"I saw you fall. I didn't know it was that bad." He rushed to her side and pulled his canteen off his belt and a cloth from his pouch. "Sit down. Let me clean it." She sunk down to the rock grateful for the rest. With all her adrenaline, she did not realize how tired she was.
Her eyes closed as he cleaned the cut. His hands were rough and strong, so she was surprised by his gentleness. "Thank you," she murmured just on the edge of sleep. "I've forgotten your name. I'm sorry."
"Lyna, you need to stay awake in case you have a concussion. I think you must have one if you've forgotten who I am. I'm Tamlen, and I'm your husband."
The cave got colder as the night wore on, but they didn't dare to start a fire in case the shems used the smoke to track them. Tamlen kept Lyna warm under a blanket and told her stories about their marriage, and about the current state of the clan. His voice carried a hint of sadness that she did not remember these important moments of their lives, but with the warmth of his arms around her and the rumble of his voice in the dark, she almost could remember. As the pale light of dawn filtered into the cave, they fell asleep in each others arms.
"Wake up, Lyna!" Tamlen insisted and she woke instantly. "I didn't mean to fall asleep and to let you fall asleep."
"I needed it. And I feel much better now."
"Are your memories coming back?"
"Oh, yes," she lied. "I'm almost completely better. We should get out of here before the shems track us."
"Shems track us?" he laughed. "Those fools couldn't find their asses with a map and a glowstone. Besides, from here we are much safer. If they come close we can shoot them from the watch spot in the upper part of the cave."
That's right. There's a perch up in the cave from which the whole valley can be seen. "I remember that spot! We should get going. I'm anxious to see if there are still shems looking for us in the forest."
"Do you know why they are hunting us?" Lyna asked Tamlen as they climbed the rock face at the back of the cave which led to the upper cave. It was knobbly with plenty of handholds, so the climb was not too strenuous.
"There is a creature attacking children in the area villages. This creature started by attacking farm animals. The farmers would go to sleep at night and they would awaken to find oxen carcasses dotting their fields. Whatever beast is attacking leaves nothing but blood, gristle and bones. Recently this beast has been attacking children and it's even happening during daytime. That's why we were out in the forest; we were trying to find out what was causing the attacks before the shemlen blamed us. Apparently it was too late because they ambushed us before we could find out what was happening. You don't remember this?"
He caught her lie. Her memory still hadn't returned, and Tamlen knew it. "I guess I do remember, now that you say it," she lied again and his mouth curled into a brief frown before he gripped the edge of the rock face and hauled himself over the ledge.
Once they got to the mouth of the upper cave, Lyna looked at the valley below. The greens and browns mixed with the golden red of sunset, and the sight was hardly marred by the smoke far away that she knew must be a group of shems looking for Dalish. She hoped the creature would find these hatful shems who decided to attack people who were trying to help rather than take a few minutes to talk and try to understand. Shems are all alike.
"Do you want something to drink?" Tamlen asked, and as he reached for his canteen, she could hear the dregs of his water sloshing.
"No, I'm fine. You don't have much left."
"That's okay. There's water a little farther back in one of the side passages. It drips down into a pool. With the light of a glowstone, it's really quite beautiful. Not as beautiful as you, of course."
"Yeah, I'm sure I'm lovely with a big gash on my face."
"You are." he said with a smile.
"If we go now, we'll miss the sunset."
"We've got many more sunsets. And you need water."
The side passage was dark compared to the brilliant light of sunset. The terrain was much rougher than the main passage, and even with the glowstone, they stumbled on rough stones that stabbed dangerously at any foot that was careless enough to tread on them. As they walked along the stones took on a silvery color, and the reflection of the glowstone off these rocks illuminated the cavern in an ethereal light. The small passageway opened into large room with a stream that trickled off the stones, making the surfaces in the cave smooth. In the center of the cave, a large pool filled with the trickling water before it flowed into the depths of the cave carving out stones for future Dalish to use as a hideout.
Lyna set the glowstone on a ledge next to the pool. Tamlen leaned over the surface of the water, admiring his reflection. He reached out and tapped the surface of the water sending concentric circles of ripples outward towards the edge of the pond. She had seen this before, seen him admiring his reflection as he looked somewhere beyond.
"Stop!" She yelled. "It's dangerous."
"It's not dangerous. The water is safe to drink." He cupped some in his hands and sipped from it. "It's cool and fresh. Maybe you should sit down. I should have brought the water to you. You are to sick for this exertion. I'm sorry."
"Tamlen, we've been here before."
"Of course we have. When we were children we visited this cave as a respite on our way to the meeting of the clans. I told you that yesterday, remember?"
"That's not what I meant. I mean we've been somewhere like this before, but not here. Tamlen, we were in a cave and there was a mirror. You disappeared and I woke up and you were gone." His face was screwed up in confusion, but she could see behind it-see through the demon's illusion. "You're still gone. I couldn't save you, Tamlen. We couldn't find you. Merill and Fenarel and I tried. We searched the cave but it was hopeless. Duncan told me that I couldn't stay or I would die the same as you. So I'm a Gray Warden now."
"A Gray Warden?" He laughed a deep throaty laugh, but she knew it was a lie. This was part of the trick.
"Where am I? Who are you? Because you aren't Tamlen. He is gone. I may have loved him, but he is gone."
"Please, don't say that," he said, but his voice had changed, his sweet throaty melodies replaced by a sinister, snake-like urging. She backed away from him and stumbled into a pile of stones, and he leapt over to her and wrapped his fingers around her neck. Lyna struggled, trying to pull his fingers off her throat. "You should have stayed quiet, you filthy elf. Why couldn't you just believe me? It was weak of you to try to remember. Most of the Gray Wardens are dead and you will soon follow." As he said these words his form changed, growing taller and more flexible until his hands looked like living magma. His fingers seared the flesh of her neck, and as the last speck of cool grey blue faded from the rage demon version of Tamlen's eyes, she pulled the dagger off her belt and sunk it into the rage demon's heart. He hissed like a teapot on a stove, but he pulled away from her throat and prepared to bash her across the face. She slid out from underneath him and backed away, and as the demon made a move to strike her again, she readied her bow and shot an arrow into its heart.
The demon melted into lava and sunk into the ground. She realized that the cave had been replaced by a squishy landscape in muted greens and browns. The fade.
