This story is based partially on my favourite book 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse in which reincarnation plays a huge part. This story is based mainly around reincarnation, but I've twisted the ideas to fit in better with the ideas found in Dragon Age.
This is ultimately an AU, as it's based 300 years after the Fifth Blight and even after the Sixth and Seventh Blight's, but you'll recognise the characters as they are introduced.
Hopefully you will enjoy the story as it unfolds, I don't really know how it will end, I'm just writing it as it comes to me.
As always, read and review, even if it's just a few words or a review saying you don't like it… it's always nice to know what people think of my work, even if it's bad.
Bioware own everything Dragon Age related, the story is my own, but the characters, ideas and flashbacks are based upon the wonderful work of the Bioware writers. I don't make any money from this story it is purely for pleasure.
-TheLyonesse-
Prologue
Sweat drips down his forehead, carving out a path in the dirt and grime that has accumulated there, as he excavates the never-ending site. All around him are heaps of dirt and in front of him stands a small pile of artifacts, shining dully in the midday sun. At first, he ignores the rivulets of sweat, but as they begin to stream into his eyes he stops and wipes his forehead with a dirty rag.
Simeon had been digging up the site for the entire morning, unearthing precious artifacts to be stored safely in the new museum at Denerim. Ever since Ostagar had been completely destroyed in the Seventh Blight, historians had taken an extreme interest in the site, hoping to recover the valuables that had been buried there.
Strands of black hair have come loose from the leather hair band that once bound it. He tucks the strands behind his ear before wiping his forehead again and securing his shoulder length hair back into its band.
Concentration broken, Simeon surveys the site around him. Ostagar is much destroyed, reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble by the largest Darkspawn horde ever to attack Ferelden. He stretches his muscular arms, lightly tanned by the sun, and stretches them above his head.
Dressed in simple black leggings, a sleeveless green tunic and firm leather boots, he feels his temperature rising in the blaring sun and reaches for the dirty rag again. Simeon unscrews the top from his water skin and drinks the liquid from within. Its warm, but he's far too thirsty to care about its temperature and glugs it down in massive gulps. He makes his way over to a large tree and sits beneath it, seeking shelter from the suns rays beneath the thick foliage.
In the distance Simeon can make out the rest of the diggers, his companions working furiously in the blazing heat, desperate to uncover some long forgotten secret, vying to discover their fame and fortune beneath the ancient rubble. He can see Vasha, the Antivan, in her trademark headscarf digging beneath what was once an impressive stone archway. He seems to be the only one taking a break from the heavy and monotonous work of digging and scraping, brushing and recording; it had sounded easy on the job pamphlet.
He's tempted to go and join his companions, see if better spoils can be found at their patch, but something keeps him at his site. He'd noticed something glinting in the sunlight earlier in the morning, peeking out from underneath an enormous boulder, and had been digging around it ever since, finding mediocre artifacts along the way. He wasn't sure what it was or even how big it was, but felt his luck was about to change. He wasn't going to leave his site so someone else could claim his discovery.
He knows all too well he should find the leader of the group and inform them he was on to something, perhaps even call Vasha over and share the excitement. He's not a trained archaeologist, unlike Vasha, merely a volunteer who had picked up the pamphlet and was eager to do something worthwhile with his visit from Orlais. He feels he has something to prove to the others, who have all found interesting items whilst digging. Simeon was yet to find anything other than coins or hair combs, and didn't want to share his discovery with anyone else.
He drains the last of his water from its skin and relishes the coolness of the shade for a few more moments, before returning to his dig spot. For the next few hours he works tirelessly under the ever blazing sun, only the sounds of insects and birds acting as a distraction from the clang of metal on stone and the scraping of dirt beneath tools. The sweat rolls down his face like a waterfall would a cliff-face and he can feel it pooling at the bottom of his back. Finally, as the sun begins to sag lower in the sky, the gap beneath the boulder is big enough for him to reach in and grab the artifact. His heart flutters as he pulls out an exquisite sword, adorned with the Theirin crest and the symbol of the Good King Alistair; a mabari between two laurel leaves… could he possibly have found such an important item? He gently places the sword next to the pile of artifacts, under a discarded piece of cloth, and returns to digging beneath the boulder, hoping to find something else of significance, desperate to prove his worth.
After a few moments of frantic digging, his hands collide with an unknown material, not metal nor stone… almost like wood. He feels his heart pound with excitement as bone is revealed to him. He feels his stomach trying to escape from his mouth as further digging reveals two skeletons lying side by side, four empty eye sockets staring up at him. He knows now he can no longer keep it to himself, he needs to call the leader of the expedition, Nahara, over. His discovery is no longer his. He yells her name, hears his voice escaping his throat coated with thick excitement.
He feels Nahara by his side in mere moments, her excitement radiating from every pore, her crystal blue eyes glinting in the fading sunlight.
"Amazing" she's saying to him, her eyes scanning the ancient bones, looking for a clue to their identities, "you find anything else?"
He points to the sword obscured by the cloth, her eyes widen in surprise as they fall across the Theirin-Cousland heraldry, her mind working out the implications of the discovery. Her eyes roam across the skeletons and fall on something glinting in the sunlight. A signet ring, shining like a beacon on a bony finger, two mabari's rearing proudly on its surface; the skeleton was a Theirin.
"He's a Theirin… that's King Alistair's sword… these two must be our Queen Elissa and He" Nahara's words were ringing in his ears, he'd done it… made an amazing discovery and it was all his.
An hour later and the remains had been excavated and transferred carefully into boxes, ready to be reassembled in the Royal Tomb; they wouldn't be displayed like some common artifact in a museum for others to muse over, they would be given a proper re-burial.
Simeon was standing, a smile on his face, watching Vasha and Nahara take the boxes away. He had done it, finally found something worthwhile… the remains of Ferelden's most famed and respected rulers, thought to have been lost forever in the destruction of Ostagar.
He surveys the site where he found them; a supernatural energy reverberates in the air. He suddenly feels like he has disturbed something he shouldn't have. A gust of wind whips his hair out of its band and into his face and he swears he can hear whispers carried along in the air. His skin is prickling under his clothing, his brain humming with an energy he can't explain, something is not right. He turns around in a circle, can feel eyes upon him, but nobody is there.
"Are you alright?" Vasha brings him back to reality; his body eases at her words
"Funny non? I spend the month trying to find something better than coin and now I wish I hadn't" his thick Orlesian accent cutting the air like a knife.
"These lands are not cursed mio amica, all will be well" her Antivan accent returning his call.
He watches her walk away; the uneasy feeling still surrounds him. Footsteps shuffle behind him and he jumps around, face-to-face with the air and nothing more. He chuckles a little to himself, at his nervousness and turns back to his site. His heart stops as he swears he can see two figures standing by the newly unearthed tomb. Dressed in ancient clothing, crowns atop their faint heads, they look to him and smile, before disappearing as quickly as they came.
He decides this is a bad sign. He knows he should have left the site alone. Yet, the figures did not scare him, nor cause him harm. He smiles as he walks away from his site, wondering what the figures meant, wondering if he was perhaps part of something more significant… little did he know how right he was.