Second Chances
Prologue *
Author's note: I do not own Dragon Age, as Bioware/EA do. I do however own my character
(Present day)
The past year, Emily Cousland had gone through every emotion possible. From the massacre of her family and all that she knew at Highever, leading an unlikely army against and winning the Blight, to surprisingly falling in love along the way .Only to have her heart broken by the silence of the man who swore to never hurt her as he permitted another to tear them apart..She remembered the last words her parents spoke "to live and make her mark", Emily achieved the making her mark by slaying the Archdemon and lived. Since the life she imagined having with Alistair in Ferelden was no longer an option. She decided to start over in Kirkwall, which was an ocean away from it. Now, Emily was entering her nineteenth year in a few days and about a month would be embarking on a new chapter in her life, one since becoming a Grey Warden was told not possible.
The nightmares filled with darkspawn and the events of Highever no longer consumed her sleep as they once did. Now she kept having a recurring dream of a secret meeting she overheard where others were deciding her fate without any say or consideration from Emily herself. The Cousland scion's thoughts seemed to connect with her dreams. She wondered if she hadn't uncloaked and spoke on her own behalf would they've told her that night in person or by messenger. Most likely, Eamon was waiting to tell her fate once Alistair was made King and then she would truly have no choice without defying the king which would mean imprisonment or death. What Eamon failed to realize that her parents made sure she was skilled in the political game as well if not better than he. They did after all hire the best rogue trainers from across Thedas that taught her more than poisons and weaponry, finding a match wasn't the only reason she was spent summers in Antiva. Eamon hardly allowed them a moment alone once they arrived back in Redcliffe from acquiring the elves. Something was off, as a future together all of sudden was a subject Alistair was avoiding. She made the mistake of not following her intuitions before and it cost her everything she held dear including her parents and her young nephew she adored, Emily needed to know whether his new life included her on not. She patted her devoted mabari on the head and told him to stay until her return. Emily decided to cloak so not to alert the Arl's servants and headed from the room.
She was awoken suddenly by Draco and his brother Kalen jumping on her bed at her cousin's estate in Kirkwall. Emily welcomed the wake-up call by the mabaris as the dream brought back bad memories from a time she greatly wanted to forget.