'Tis a rough life, playing the role of defender. There is always evil to be conquered in some form, even in the most holy of places, and it takes its toll on one's mind. When you have travelled alone for as long as I have, it is easy to start avoiding minor settlements or camps out of pure habit; a half-life spent tracking enemies and keeping out of sight can wreak most terrible havoc upon one's mind, and one will find oneself peering back, lest one be ambushed and killed. However, this is not the tale I weave for you today, oh no; today I weave the tale of the Witch and the Warden.

The wild marshes of lands with names long tainted by evil can be a dangerous place, even for those trained to combat whatever may lay in wait beneath the mud and deceptively deep waters. Each step look Lyna several moments, as she wrestled her heavy plated boots free of the sticky, water-logged earth; each time she put her foot down, it would sink, deeper and deeper with each step, as if the very ground itself was alive and hungry for fresh meat. As she wedged herself over ankle-high in another stodgy pool of dirt, noises started to reverberate in the winds, nature carrying the warning of approaching creatures, soon their stench would also be delivered, and their fates sealed.

Lyna took a deep breath of the moist air through her nose, and spat it back out. Darkspawn. She reached for her bow, forgetting that she was rapidly sinking deeper into the mud. Instinctively, she tried to back-pedal to higher ground, but her foot jammed, and instead she was thrown to the ground, landing with a resounding squelch in the mud. The noise was clear now, and rhythmic. The low beat of a drum rang out through the marshes, and the heavy and sickening odour they carried threatened to cloud Lyna's mind and choke her with its foulness.

She clawed at her boots, desperately trying to break free of the earth. Anytime now they'd picked up her own scent, and would gain speed that nothing can outrun and live. She hastened and scooped great slabs on the mud out and flung it aside. The noise stopped, only the drum-beat remained. Faster she scooped, tugging one foot free, and a second… Howls and roars pierced the crisp morning air, she was too late. Great thuds of heavy boots soon filled the marsh, and Lyna finally pulled herself free, dashing as carefully as she could over a small rocky outcropping. She strung her bow and nocked an arrow, laying her quiver next to her for easier access. She would not go down without a fight.

Each breath reeked of the Darkspawn, they were seconds away from her position, and the noise they made was violent and deafening; it was no hard task to see why many of the bravest soldiers in the land still flee at the sight of a Darkspawn. She rested her bow in a small groove, and spied the closest warrior. It burst forth from a line of shrubs, seeing nought but an arrow flying at his head. Two more dashed out, each falling seconds later to precision head-shots. More came, and they fell before they could even see their enemy, but it was getting harder to kill them all quickly, and Lyna was running out of arrows.

At last, a leader figure showed itself. Unlike the others, he was adorned in dark golden armour, and was almost twice as big as those he commanded. Lyna reached for an arrow and discovered it was to be her last. She needed to make this count. She nocked the arrow, picked her target and let the arrow fly, straight between the eyes of the beast. Or so she thought, for the beast had not fallen. The arrow was bent and splintered in front of him, a thin bubble of energy crackling around the beast as his throaty laugh filled the silence in Lyna's mind.

The beast pointed a palm at Lyna's location, and she just managed to dive as a bolt of lightning struck the outcropping, blowing it apart in a cataclysmic explosion that tore the whole outcropping apart. Lyna had dodged the initial bolt, but she was thrown through the air by the blast, shards of rock scratching her armour as they flew past. She landed heavily, and felt something crack in her right arm, a noise that was succeeded by a lancing pain that indicated that her arm was at best heavily fractured.

Lyna was no healer, nor even a semi-adept mage; there was no conceivable way that she could fight in her current state. The bulk of the horde was behind their glorious golden leader, who lumbered up to where Lyna lay prone amidst a sea of rock shards, and luckily upon harder ground. The beast grinned, baring two rows of deathly sharp yellowing teeth,

"My brothers! We dine on fresh flesh tonight!" The beast shouted. Ever since the dreams she'd been getting after the joining, Lyna had become more skilled at the Darkspawn language, able to comprehend most sentences, and even string together a few minor ones of her own; not that diplomacy ever spared anyone who faced the Darkspawn.

The beast's statement gained roars and bellows from his horde that quickly died as their leader violently shuddered. The back of his armour dented and sundered, as if hit by an invisible weapon. Sparks flew as his magic shield tried to stop whatever was attacking him. He glared down at Lyna with fearsome, rage-filled eyes. He roared and his body exploded outwards, showering everything with gore. The horde of Darkspawn stilled and became cautious, their eyes peering through every crevice they could find. A flash appeared in the middle of the destroyed area that once housed the outcropping, and moments later a large area of the ground underneath the Darkspawn erupted in flames, incinerating those caught in it, and burning those that were too close.

The remnants of the horde charged forwards, forming an impenetrable wall that would catch anything, invisible or otherwise. Something shimmered in front of Lyna, and a section of the Darkspawn formation was flung high and far. The ground beneath another section was turned into creeping ice, which sent veins crawling up the beasts that stood in it, rendering them immobile and soon to be encased in an icy prison. The very earth beneath another section sundered and split, swallowing the beasts whole. The earth would get its meal after all. What remained of the Darkspawn turned tail and fled, but soon hit a wall of lightning much like the bubble their leader had created. A whole battle company had been dismantled within minutes by a single person, or a number of persons, or a whole army of persons, each one invisible.

"Show yourself… yourselves… your- Damnit just become visible!" Lyna barked, twisting her head around to see if anything had become visible.

"You are in no position to give orders." A sharp disembodied reply coursed through the air.

Lyna scanned around her for the source, but still it was not visible, "I am also in no position to fight or resist, what harm could there be?" She shouted back.

"There is no need to shout, I'm right here." Lyna turned her head and jumped as she was met by the head of a kneeling woman. Her hair was jet black and her eyes a cloudy grey. She wore a shade of purple eye-shadow above each eye, and bold black eyelashes sprouted from her eyelids. Her skin was pale, a great contrast to her rich purple lips, coloured similarly to her eye-shadow and the think cloth robe that hung from her shoulders, draping over a small part of her upper body; covering her breasts and part of her stomach, but little more. A vast array of jewellery adorned her neck, some even hanging from the small bra that enclosed her nipples, others taking the form of bangles around her wrists.

A long skirt wrapped around her petite waist, draping down over her legs and brushing against the floor. It seemed to be made of rags and scraps, and was clearly not the work of any fine tailor, nor was her thin cloth top. For someone of her power, the outfit seemed flimsy and cheap, not lavish and extravagant as Lyna had expected.

The woman blinked, staring deep into Lyna's eyes, as if searching for something, "Well? Is gawping all you can do? To think that minutes ago you were fighting for your life like a Grey Warden should be, and now I've managed to reduce you to a staring loony." She sighed heavily and stood up, "You are not the first, how should I put it… intellectually impaired Warden I've known, and I fear you shall not be the last; however I do prefer the company of people who are at least able to blink, and maybe string together a minor coherent sentence, so I must leave you now." The woman turned to leave.

"Wait." Lyna said.

The woman turned and raised an eyebrow, "Nearly there, aren't we? Just a few more words to go until you're a normal human being again!" She replied sarcastically.

"Just who are you? How did you know I was a Warden and why do you keep referencing others?" Lyna asked, ignoring the woman's sarcasm.

"There we go, I've done it! I've healed someone of their inability to communicate! Wonderful, aren't I? To reply to your questions, firstly, who I am is none of your concern; I am simply a passing mage who thought you could use some help. Secondly, I DO know you are a Warden, and you still are one as far as I can tell, I guess tenses are next on my list of things to teach you. Thirdly and finally, I reference others because I know of others; if I did not know of others I would not reference them, and references can help people to understand things better, a skill you look you could use." The woman stopped, her lips extending into a small grin as Lyna showed her frustration at the vague answers.

"Look, woman, I asked you three perfectly simple questions and I want answers, not riddles and sarcasm!" Lyna shouted, yet the woman did not flinch, nor even lower her grin; instead she burst out laughing, "What? What is so funny? Are you insane?"

The woman stopped laughing and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands, "Ah, you're so cute when you attempt to take charge. Yet fine, if you want answers, I shall give you answers, but not right now. Your arm is broken and you're bleeding quite badly from those cuts, you'll soon get bruises of all colours and some of your wounds might have bits of stone inside them. I'll need to bring you back to my lodgings so that I can tend to them. I am no healer magically, but I can produce an effective salve or poultice from what the marsh provides me with." Lyna looked away, deep in thought, "It's now or never, make a decision."

"I'll go, but I can fight as effectively with my left hand once I'm on my feet." Lyna said, clambering up and wincing as every joint in her body protested.

"Haha, I shall try nothing funny, do not worry yourself; but must I really tell you that you swords means nothing to me when I can snap you like a twig with just a look?" The woman opened her eyes wide and Lyna tried to raise her right arm to protect herself, yelping as the pain lanced up her arm, and scolding herself for her pathetic attempt to protect herself against a joke.

"We shall see who is laughing after I recover." Lyna muttered, nursing her arm as she followed the woman away from the clearing, unaware that a greater danger lurked nearby.