Okay first, some background on Madeia, prior to her first appearance?

She was a slave to her father, born from his elven mistress. At first he wanted nothing to do with her, or his mistress, but once her mother had died, he learned that she had some magic to her. He captured her and made her carry out his wishes. She'd been his personal assassin ever since. Once the Blight started however, her father ran off, leaving her to the darkspawn to die. She fought her way to Lothering, where she encountered the new Grey Warden and her first set of companions. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she kept herself in the background silently helping from the shadows. She questioned the Wardens sanity when she released the captured Qunari, and then did the same to the Chantry Sister that joined their ranks. Intrigued by the Warden and not wanting to stay in Lothering, she followed them. After watching the group save a traveling merchant, she decided she wanted to help them but she still hadn't wanted to be discovered. Knowing that if word got out about a magic wielding rogue, her father would come from her. So she shadows them, helping out in ways she can without the Warden or the others knowing.

Description: White hair long hair (brushes just below her waist) that's usually braided or pulled back, silver blue eyes and slightly pointed ears (so slight someone wouldn't notice it they weren't paying attention). She has one tear like marking from the corner of her eyes, that extend only a couple inches towards her cheeks.

Chapter 1

The Warriors Shadow | Previously titled 'Secret Warrior' | Revised

Madeia stretched and covered her yawn as the sun slowly made its way over the tree line, lighting up the forest. It had been another uneventful night. A couple of darkspawn had wandered towards the camp, and not wanting them to stumble into the camp and disturb the Warden and her companions, she'd dealt with them silently and quickly. She'd hear the Chantry Sister, Leliana, mention that they were going to travel to Redcliff soon.

The other Warden, Alistair, had woken up early that morning to prepare breakfast, while the Wardens mabari, Synner, walked around the edge of camp. He moved closer, sniffing the trees, and it took all she had not to move away. The dog had been the only thing that made following the group difficult. Well, it and the Qunari, Sten. Sten always seemed to look around as though he knew she was there. As the group started to become more active, she pulled her hood up and secured it better. The last thing she needed was her bright hair accidentally catching someone's attention. Once they were all packed up, Madeia pulled up her small amount of supplies and shoved them back into her pack to head out after them.

At one point in the day, an elven woman ran up to the group. She was shouting about how her and her caravan had been attack and needed help, and Medeia had debated on moving on ahead to help, but decided against it as the Warden ran after the weeping woman. She kept her bow in hand and silently followed as they headed into a hilled area. Seeing another path, she decided to take the higher route to watch over them from above.

From her higher vantage point, Madeia could see immediately that it was an ambush. The woman was a mage, and she'd led the group into an ambush. Cursing, she dropped to the ground, reached for her bow, and took out one of the archers aiming for the Warden. She was about to fire off another arrow when Morrigan cast an earth-saking spell that took the rest of their attackers out. The rest save for a blonde elf that was laid-out, clearly still alive, on the ground at the Wardens feet. She didn't even need to be near to know what the conversation below her was about. If she stayed true to the pattern she'd been displaying, the Warden would pull the assassin into her group of misfit warriors to help fight the Blight.

Madeia watched as the Warden extended her hand to help the assassin up as Leliana, Alistair and Sten looted the grounds. The warden seemed to be having a stilted conversation with the would-be assassin as they took off again, and by the time they'd made it to the outskirts of Redcliff, Medeia was feeling as if she'd keel over at any moment. When a frantic man ran up to Alistair, she had to forcibly hold back a groan of displeasure. How much longer could she shadow these people and not get spotted? Or die of starvation? Digging through her pack she pulled out a small slice of bread and nibbled on it while allowing herself to slow her pace behind them. No doubt some horrendously awful thing was going on in town and they were about to be recruited into yet another noble quest. If it was anyone else, Madeia would have been disgusted. People seeking power and admiration were no more than scum to her. All they wanted was to be known, to have some amazing deed let them cruise through life more easily. But she knew the Warden was different. She'd been one of the Dalish, and she carried with her the long-held Dalish pride, her independence and most of all, a pure heart. Madeia had never once seen the woman act biased towards anyone, human or any other race. She listened to all of the facts and found out exactly what she needed to know before deciding on what to do. She'd never seen another person hold so much responsibility so well, it was one of the reasons why she followed her and her companions. And hell, a part of her thought that if the Warden had stumbled upon her and her father, that maybe she would have liberated her long before the Blight, saving her from all the future beatings that awaited her for her stubborn ways. She could have been saved, like all the Warden came across.

She shook her head, clearing off her thoughts like cobwebs, and watched as the Warden and her friends ran toward the town. The assassin's name was Zevran. She caught this as he and Leliana passed perilously close to her hiding spot, but they passed without incident, and continued on picking up weapons they thought they could use. When night fall came she watched them get ready for an attack, so she followed suit and pulled out her bow before she sat in town to wait for whatever they knew was coming. It wasn't long before her skin tightened with the presence of foreign beings, she could feel the despair and darkness that produced it. She never knew if it was her latent magic, or just a part of her that recognized it. She watched with bated breath as skeletons started swarming the village, and pulled her bow off her back to cover the men ran to the Chantry.

At a pause in her shooting, she spotted the Warden running down the hill, and she gathered her bow up again and started picking off the skeletons that were getting too close to the Chantry. She didn't want any of the people taking refuge inside to get hurt. It was beyond apparent that this town had gone through enough already.

"Warden! There's so many of them!" A man cried out.

The Warden only replied by cutting down two skeletons that were in front of her.

"Just keep killing them and try not to get hit!"

One of the men staggered away from the group just then, an ax stuck in his chest. Swearing, Madeia healed him enough to keep him alive and then quickly backed away from the ledge to hide herself. There would be no way that Morrigan hadn't felt her presence with a spell like that, she'd have to relocate herself and put distance between herself and the others before helping them anymore. She leapt from the roof she was on, and bit off a grunt at the impact as she headed off towards the docks to loop around to another location. The skeletons were scattered around, trying to find a closer route that would lead them to the Chantry. Slipping her bow back over her shoulder she pulled out her twin blades and broke into a grin heading off into the mass. Forgetting her previous idea, she started cutting down the skeletons before they could make their way towards where the Warden was.

Several healed wounds later, it seemed like it was over. Righting her armor, Madeia slipped her weapons back into place and started up to the small tavern up the hill. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw that the Warden and the others had gathered in the middle of the town. No doubt checking the wounded and counting up their losses. She didn't need to be around to watch that but she did need to find some food. Once at the taverns locked doors she sighed and pulled out her picks. Seconds later she was in the door and headed to the stock room. No one would miss a little bread and cheese right?

After filling her pack with enough food for a meal or two, she dropped a view coins in a jar at the bar and headed out to find a place to sleep for the remainder of the night.