Prologue: All things come to an end…
All things come to an end. Father has always said so. He also said freedom was being able to choose how. He chose to protect the River Dalish from becoming slaves to the Tevinter magisters. That was twelve years ago. He left behind a wife and three sons, aged 23, 14, and 13.
All things come to an end. Mother said so. She also said that the best we can do is die with dignity. The eldest brother didn't die thus despite his capacity the live life with the passion one can only live when they know their next breath might be their last. That was two years after father left. Five years later, mother went to heal in a village locked up under quarantine. Tevinter Magisters reduced it to ash a week later, with her in it while teen brothers watched in horror from a hill.
All things come to an end. They dreamed of the heroism of Wardens. They dreamed of being famous healer and warrior. They dreamed of finding treasure and wealth from ruins and caves and traveling the world. They dreamed of fighting darkspawn and saving the world. They were more one brother's dreams than the other. Those came to an end too with that older brother.
Sweat and smoke stung the young healer's eyes. All things come to an end. Those dreams ended with the gasping breaths of his brother. Magic served no one any good in the end. It didn't save his father or the Dalish. It didn't save the eldest brother's life. It didn't save a village under plague. It in fact obliterated it with his mother. And it didn't save this brother, either. He set the torch to the thatched roof, then the wooden shed that held the drying herbs for the healing potions, and then to the autumn wilting gardens.
All things come to an end. Freedom is the ability to choose how. All one can do is to die with dignity. He shouldered his pack and his bow. He never wanted to really be a hero, never wanted to fight anyone's fights, never wanted to be anything more than a healer. But he could not stay here any longer. Tevinter magisters would only come again, would only ruin more dreams. His dreams were gone now with everything he loved and cared about. If he could not live his own dreams, then maybe he could try to live the dreams of the brother he begged to stay home.
My end will be the same as my brothers. I have the freedom to choose how that end will be and for them… for me… die with dignity in the short time that I have left.
He touched the medallion his father gave him and turned his back from his former life. Facing south, he walked. Antiva was that direction and so was Ansburg Wardens Keep. He had no idea how far, nor did he really care. The cold and numbness from what recently happened started to sink in. All he thought about was one foot in front of the other. Then one small question after another once he crossed the border from Tevinter into Antiva. Till at last he stood at the gates of the Ansburg Warden's Keep, nestled on the north of the Free Marches, just above Starkhaven, just below Tevinter, and between Antiva and Orlais.
A Warden called down from the tower above the gate, "You there, archer. Why are you here?"
"I have come to join the Wardens," he called up. There was no turning back now. The gates opened and he was let in.