Marian Hawke woke with a spring in her step one bright morning. She knew she would not have to work in her papa's shop until the evening, and so she scampered down the steps of their tiny house, pressed a kiss to mama's cheek, then papa's, and then raced out of the door.
As she scampered down the street, she was careful to keep her dirty feet from treading upon the long, trailing silks of the fine ladies of Seleny. Doing so would likely earn the ire of one of the grand lady's guards, who would give little thought to tossing an nine year old troublemaker into the stocks for a night and a day.
Even more dangerous was the odd man or woman on the street bearing the heraldry of the Crows. Some of Marian's friends weren't frightened of talking to the Crows, but she knew better. Or- her papa had told her better. Yes, the Crows were known to give the odd street rat a coin or two if they proved useful. But if a child her age showed themselves to be too useful, there was a fair chance they would be whisked away to Antiva City - and not on a sightseeing tour.
She successfully sidestepped past the ladies in finery, the hard-faced guards, and the smooth-talking Crows, and followed a familiar path to the Seleny Alienage. She slipped through the enormous Iron gate, offered a beaming smile to the elven guards. It didn't take her any time at all to reach her friend's home.
"Pito!" She called, cupping her small hands over her mouth for volume. A few moments later, an elf with firey red hair and a gap-toothed grin peeked his head out of one of the makeshift windows of the shack where his family lived.
"Marian!" He called back. "Hold on a moment-"
"Don't make me wait too long!" She said with a laugh, and he disappeared back into the shack. She spent the next few minutes scrawling circles in the dirt with the tip of her big toe until Pito emerged from the door with a basket of laundry held close to this chest.
"My aunt said all I have to do is deliver this washing to Filippa and then I'm free." He said, and Marian nodded, "Oh, and-" Pito glanced over his shoulder, "She said we have to take Alea."
Marian's face fell as Pito's shew-faced twin stepped into the light. She always found it difficult to believe that Alea could be related to Pito, considering how often they fought. When the baby came, Marian was determined that she and her brother or sister would never fight. "Hullo, Alea."
"Hello, Mare-ee-an." Alea said, intentionally mispronouncing Marian's name with her thick Northern accent, as she always did.
Marian rolled her eyes, "Let's go." She said, tossing her head. She let the elf twins out of the alienage and to the home of Filippa. On the way, Marian made a show of bumping into Pito for Alea and whoever may have been watching. "Sorry." She said, a little more loudly than necessary, and put her hand on the basket of washing.
She thought of feathers, clouds, and her father's cakes, and when she pulled her hand away, she could tell that Pito's burden had been significantly reduced. Pito was her very best friend in the world in the whole wide world, and so he could be trusted with the knowlege of her special gift. There was little else she could have done. Alea wouldn't have helped her brother, and Marian carrying the washing while Pito and Alea's elvish hands were empty would have roused unwanted attention.
They dropped the washing and a crumpled one-hundred andris note off at widow Filippa's. She was a very kind elderly woman, with dark blue eyes that sparkled with youthful vigor when she gave each of the children a piece of one of her dense berry cakes.
Marian was still nibbling on her slice of cake when the children were nearing the outskirts of Seleny. She hadn't eaten much of it, and was quick to break it in half and offer it to the twins, who had wolfed their pieces just as soon as they had passed into their hands. Alea took the cake with a greedy gleam in her eyes, Pito hesitated, but took the offering, as well. When he questioned the rumbling in her stomach, she just smiled and shook her head.
"There'll be roots I can eat in the swamp, anyway." She said with a light laugh.
The dense swamp that bordered the outskirts of Seleny offered very little to the respectable citizens of the city. But to the urchin children of foreginers such as young miss Marian. the swamp was the central setting of nearly every tall tale and fantasy that she had ever heard. Save for father's stories of great armies of dog lords, and mother's waxing poetic about a grand estate in a city she had never seen. But those stories were boring! Mother and father never spoke of witches or dragons or fish with enormous teeth.
"The swamp?" Alea's upper lip curled upwards in disgust. "We can't go there!" She looked to Pito, "Auntie will be so mad-"
Pito visibly recoiled from his sister, and he looked to Marian, hope in his face. Marian wasn't afraid of his aunt, and she wasn't afraid of his sister, either.
Marian put her hands on her hips, "Your Auntie won't be angry with us if we find treasure in the swamp, will she?" She asked.
Alea's brow furrowed, but she was clearly considering what Marian was saying. "Treasure?" She echoed. "How do you know there's treasure?"
"I have a treasure map, of course!" Marian said, and then bowed her head and put one hand to her mouth, as if she intended to confide her great secret to Alea and Alea alone. "I have it in my pocket, but I can't take it out here, or a crow might snap it up. So let's just go, and maybe you can bring your Auntie a sovereign, or a crown!"
"What's a sovereign?" Pito asked later, once he and Alea had fallen into step beside Marian.
"It's a kind of coin from Ferelden." Marian said, scanning the section of wall she had selected for them to slip out of and into the wilds. "Made from gold." She added, and Pito's eyes widened.
"I've never seen gold." He murmured.
"I saw a bit of gold once." Alea said smugly. "When the templars came to take Herion's baby brother. One of them had gold on their shield, Auntie said."
For the first time, Marian found herself envying Alea. Marian had seen gold before, of course, but she had never been close enough to see a Templar's shield in detail. Papa always kept her and Mama well away from the line of hard-faced templars that stood at the front of the Chantry during prayers. She would not, however, be saying anything to that effect. She refused to give Alea the satisfaction.
"What did it look like?" She heard Pito ask his sister as she scanned the wall for the crack she had discovered mere days ago when she and Papa had left the city to hunt spiders for the chantry.
"Here!" She called, and waved Pito and Alea over to a section of the wall that had been covered up with a large board. Marian pushed the board aside, revealing two child-sized packs and, more importantly, a child-sized hole in the wall.
"We shouldn't do this-" Alea whined as Marian and Pito pulled on the packs.
"The Chant of Light says that Andraste favors the bold." Marian replied, knowing that bringing up Andraste was sure to shut Alea up.
She was right. Alea pursed her lips again, but said nothing. Marian grinned, and ducked into the hold in the wall. Once she emerged outside of Seleny, she put her hand to her brow and looked towards the west. The Tellari Swamps darkened the horizon. Marian couldn't wait.
She led the twins to an unpaved sideroad that headed towards the swamp. As they walked, she explained the story that she would tell anyone who happened upon them.
"My papa is a hunter, and we're bringing him his lunch." She said with a firm nod of her head. "And you two are my servants, because I'm a noble and I'm too stupid to be let out of the city without someone to come with me." She and Pito shared a laugh at that, and she swore that she could see a smile on Alea's face, for a brief moment, at least.
The sun was high in the sky, warming the scruffy black top of Marian's hair, when they reached the first outcrop of those strange spindly trees that characterized Antivan swamps. Witches' fingers, they were called, for their twisted forms. They had a proper name, but not one known to bright-eyed urchin children.
Marian took a cheese knife from her pack and carved an 'X' into the trunk of the first tree. "So people can follow our path when they hear the story about us." She said with a confident grin as she replaced the knife on her belt.
"You can barely see it." Alea said scornfully, though she seemed more disappointed than annoyed.
"Well, when we come back and we have the sword of King Favien, we'll make some proper markings!" Pito exclaimed, excitement bubbling in his voice. And with good reason, Marian knew this must have been the furthest that either of them had ever gone from Seleny.
The clumps of Witches' fingers grew more and more dense as they traveled down the road until, finally, the beams of sunlight became few and far-between. The sound of the warm Antivan winds rustling through the tall grasses was replaced with the chirping of crickets and the soft cries of kestrels above the treeline. Despite the encroaching darkness, Marian was able to keep Pito and Alea distracted with her Papa's stories of his home land.
"And the daring Black Fox cut the rope from his love's neck, and they leaped down off of the gallows and tore into the streets of Rivani's capital!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air, fingers spread.
"But where did he find the unicorn?" Alea asked skeptically, her brow furrowed.
"Shh-" Pito said, his eyes wide, eager to hear more.
Marian exhausted every story she knew, regaling the twins even as she began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. The first time they passed a tree covered in cobwebs, Marian decided to turn along the path to a smaller, less clearly-marked trail. She chatted on and on, even as they took a break to snack on the sandwiches she had packed. She gave Alea leave to eat her own provisions and instead opted to climb to the top of an enormous log, squinting to peer into the swamp.
"Marian." Alea said through a mouthful of crumbs. "Do you think we ought to have a look at your map now?"
Pito nodded, "Yeah, Marian! This is a grand adventure already, but we have to find treasure for it to be a real quest- like your King Maric's!"
Marian didn't face her friends for a moment, and then turned, hopping off of the log. "There is treasure around here!" She said with her best and widest smile. "But I've memorized the map already, and I know which way-" She turned on her heel, squinting into the thick air of the swamp. "- to go." She glanced back to Alea and Pito, "So pack up camp, heroes! And we'll find our gold!"
They continued along the trail until it was nothing but porous mud. Once they were walking in water and weeds up to their knees, Alea began to complain again. "I don't like this-" She whimpered, glancing nervously around herself. Pito looked equally unnerved.
"Maybe we should see the map now, Marian.." He said softly, glancing up nervously into the trees.
Marian, who was beginning to feel a chill from the water that was soaking through her tunic, gave a little shudder. "It'll just be a little further onward-" She said, sounding much more confident than she felt. She glanced over her shoulder to watch as Alea tripped over a root and tumbled face-first into the muck. Pito rushed to help his sister back to her feet, but Marian hung back, unwilling to touch the other girl.
Alea's eyes were bright red, "I want to go home!" She wailed, "This is stupid!"
"Shh!" Marian exclaimed, eyes widening. She heard a snap amongst the tree trunks. "Be quiet." She bit down hard on her lower lip, enough to taste copper.
"We won't stay another moment unless you show us the map!" Alea shouted, stamping a petulant foot into the marsh. All three children heard a much louder splash than Alea's tiny foot should have made.
"Don't move." Marian whispered, and Alea fell silent, while all of the color drained out of Pito's face. It was in these moments that Marian realized that the sounds of both the crickets and the kestrals had disappeared. They remained silent as the grave for so long that eventually Marian's hearing was dominated by the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. "It's alright." She whimpered, "It's alright." She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on the fen around them, reaching out with all of her being for safety. Finally, she felt a soft glimmer of light, and her eyes opened.
"This way-" She said, pointing towards the source fo the feeling. Alea's lower lip quivered, but Pito nodded, trusting his friend fully. "-careful." Slowly, the trio began to move through the swamp again. Marian pressed them forward, ignoring the scratching and the sound of scuttling feet that cut through the trees. Finally, panic and fear took over Marian's determination.
"Run!" She shouted, and Alea let out a piercing shriek as a shadow crossed in front of them. "Run!" She cried once more, and all three children broke into a sprint. They had barely gone ten feet when the scratching and scuttling gave away to inhuman screeches.
"Spiders!" Pito exclaimed in disbelief.
"Spiders!" Alea cried out, tears streaming down her muddy cheeks.
'Spiders!' Marian thought to herself, and felt a jolt of excitement stab through her chest - was this how the Wardens felt when facing down an Archdemon? Was this how father and mother had felt while running from the templars in Ferelden? Was this how the Queen had felt when she had been stabbed through with four steel swords?
"Marian!" Pito exclaimed, and then was silenced forever by the snapping together by enormous mandibles. Alea shrieked as her brother's blood sprayed across her face.
"No!" Marian shouted, but it was far, far too late. Though the air was warm, and the marsh was warm, all she felt was cold.
She was broken from her revelry by Alea's fingernails digging into her arm. "Marian, run!" She cried in anguish, pushing the other girl forward. They stumbled through the muck, trying to ignore the sickening sounds of the enormous spider wrapping Pito's motionless form in its webbing.
Tears streamed down Marian's cheeks and she and Alea pushed through the marsh.
"I hate you!" Alea cried, but clung close.
"Shut up!" Marian shouted back, trying to listen to the light that cut like a beacon through the bloody darkness of the swamp. "Run. run!"
She didn't know how long it took, but eventually the water gave way to mud and then to a thick tangle of grass and strange white flowers. Marian's foot caught on a root and she tripped, sending both girls tumbling to the ground in a bloody, mud-caked heap. They lay still in the grass for a moment, breathing heavily, chests heaving and hands shaking.
Marian pushed herself up to her elbows, and then to her knees and looked up, feeling the light burning so brightly that she thought she might go blind. But when she looked up, instead of seeing a lantern or a light, she was staring into the face of a man with a thick black beard and a cloak that covered his form in shadow.
Slowly, more men emerged from the trees, speaking in a language that Marian didn't recognize. Most of the men wore thick leather belts and had longswords and shields. When she looked up farther, she realized the man who she was looking at carried a staff with a brilliant red jewel at the tip that was as terrifying as it ws beautiful.
She swallowed hard and pushed herself to her feet. "Please!" She cried, grasping at the man's robes. "My friend-" She turned and looked down at Alea. The other girl was face down in the mud and wasn't moving. "Alea!" Marian gasped and would have fallen to her knees had the man's hands not already closed over her upper arms. "Let go of me!" She kicked her feet as hard as she could as she was lifted off of the ground. She wriggled against the man's grip in vail, too tired and too small.
The men laughed and spoke again, and the man holding her took her away from Alea's motionless form and then set her down in front of another man with a staff. She looked up at the man with wide eyes and heard a clink of glass.
She saw a flash of blue and the light she had sensed in the swamp exploded behind her eyes. Her tiny hands grabbed at the flask offered to her, but she was denied. Instead, a rough hand pulled her head back by her hair, and another pushed her lips open. The bright blue liquid splashed into her mouth, tasting like summer and sweat and Pito's blood. She cried against the taste, but after a while she was gripping the flask again, drinking up every last drop.
The hands released her and the men fell back, laughing again. Marian's entire body felt rigid, and then fluid, everything in between. It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck right between her eyes. Then, she heard the familiar skittering and she whirled about, just in time to see the spider crashing through the treeline.
She heard a crackling like a great bonfire, saw a flash of fire that nearly blinded her, and then the spider was letting out a horrible shriek, writing as vicious tongues of flames consumed its legs and head.
Then, darkness.