Cearbhail:

Well, here we are. I promised that I might do this if someone asked for it. Well, here it is. The first chapter. It will get better, but I wanted the opening to be as close to the story as possible. So... have some fun, grab a plate of awful cookies and enjoy your stay.

Well… shit. I'm stuck in a small dimly lit room with only a single oil-lit lantern hovering right over top of me to provide some amount of light to this already stated… dimly lit room. The lantern is already on its final stages of life… the flame sputtering somewhere between life and death, the very flame dancing on the light breeze flowing through the cracks of the shack's door. The flame of the lantern was making me sick to my stomach, making tiny shadows of the bars to my cell dance along the walls.

If that wasn't enough, I had a massive gate hanging over my head. It rained an hour ago, and I'm sure these cells were designed for torture. Sitting me down in the middle of the room, shackled to the ground as drops of water occasionally dripped down on top of me. Just enough to keep me damp and uncomfortable. I was also cuffed in a tight pair of iron shackles. And this was only a problem because I had an itch on my ass that I couldn't scratch at the moment. And it was driving me crazy. Add in the hard stone floors, the flickering lantern, and the cold breeze creaking through the open ceiling and the doorway… and you have a one-way ticket to shemlen paradise.

Oh yeah… I forgot one little detail. It's not really significant or anything like that, but… I guess I should just throw it out there. The fucking burning green energy embedded in my left hand! Every few minutes, I fell this massive surge of pain in my left hand which starts as a light pressure but quickly escalates to full spasms and burning. Half the time, it felt like my hand was getting ready to explode! Great Mythal, I sure hope this… whatever it was goes away soon. This has elven forbidden magic written all over it. You know what… I bet it's some kind of sick cruel prank by Fen'Harel or something. The elven god of tricks and mischief. The last thing I need before heading home to my clan is to be turned into a mageling, or a plaything for Fen'Harel. I'm not sure my younger brother would like it if I was suddenly adopted as the First of our clan. Clan Lavellan.

As I thought of it, my palm started burning. I could feel the pain start right back up again. And then I heard the light crackling of magick energy sprouting from my palm, a bright sickening green light of demonic origin pouring from my once kind of innocent hand. I say kind of innocent because there were things I've done with this hand that weren't… well… so innocent.

Any attention I gave to my glowing hand was quickly taken away as the doorway slammed open. A small crew of soldiers rushed into the room; the lantern's flame dancing even wilder as they stormed into the room. Their shadows played sick stories behind me; stories of slaughter, of enslavement. I could see the future in their eyes… a future that involved my head on a pike.

The small squad of pikemen surrounded me, keeping their spears aimed at my throat. They stood there, eyeing me with malice as a pair of heavy boots slowly and methodically stomped their way through the doorway. The woman standing in front of me was a face of compassion and love. Ha! No, I'm kidding. This was a person of considerable contempt for me, and I don't really know why. I bet she was about to tell me though.

"We can do this one of two ways." She said with a thick something accent, not dalish, I know that much. She was wearing what appeared to be thick armor adorned with a single knowing eye imprinted on the front and back of her armor plates. I know not what this meant in terms of allegiances or cultural standing. It could represent their god, the Maker, for all I knew. It sent a frightful message to me though… 'I'm watching you.' And that was one message I did not feel comfortable hearing from a piece of armor. "You can either tell me what I want to know… or I can make you tell me what I want to know." She cast a final glance at me before clearing the doorway.

As the woman walked into the room, she slowed her pace down, glaring daggers at me as she slowly started to pace around me. I tried my best to keep my calm, but I could see the bloody knife hanging on her belt; the sheathed sword that seemed to be only inches away from her drawing hand. And she was looking at me in such a way that I was certain to be just another victim to shemlen brutality.

I released a deep breath as I offered a small prayer to Falon'Din, our god of death and guidance. I knew not what would happen with me, but I did know that humans, while not inherently vile, do not view elvhen lives with as much tolerance or restraint as they would with a fellow human. A small elf dying in the streets would be quickly overlooked most days; and one elf could easily be beaten to death over a small mix-up with an order at a café… and no one would bat an eye. And here I was… locked up in chains with pikemen ready to plunge their spears into my throats.

And my crime? Oh… you know… nothing serious. I'm just the sole survivor of a little accident between the Divine Justinia the Fifth… and a whole meeting of some of the most powerful people in the free world. A very important meeting that could and would determine the state of the war between the mages and the templars. A war that was slowly ravaging the world around us; killing not only mages and templars… but people caught in the crossfire, as well as nature. And since I'm the only survivor of an explosion that killed everyone at this meeting… and since I have this glowing abnormality in my left hand… guess who got blamed for the deaths of not only the most figurehead religious leader of the shemlen world but the leaders for the mages and templars. That's right… the elf girl wearing chains around her wrists, fearing a beheading from the obvious executioner standing right behind me.

I felt something lower over my shoulder. "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you right here… right now." She whispered just loud enough to make my lap wet all over again. Hey! I've been sitting here for at least two hours and I didn't exactly get the chance to use the privy before the whole world exploded around me. I was too busy at the time… doing spy stuff. "The Conclave is destroyed… Everyone who attended is dead…" She walked around to face me, her armored finger practically shoved in my face. "Except for you." She said with a slight curl of a smirk on her lips, a tiny accusatory laugh.

I looked away from the angry woman to the more perplexed one standing just right behind her. She was a thinner woman with neck-length red hair. She looked a lot nicer, but… I think I can relate more to her than I could this brute of a woman shoving her sausage in my face. I hope I could give my story to her. She might listen to me. But, as I looked up at the woman addressing me, I felt another drip of water on top of my head. Great… that's still going on.

The armored woman reached down, grabbing my left hand, pulling it up. As if on cue, my hand started sparking again, giving off that creepy green glow. "Explain this!" She growled to me, squeezing my arm tighter than I could bare. She threw my arms back to the ground, forcing me to throw myself forward.

"It's a green thing." I replied.

"I get that." She replied. "How did you get it?"

I found myself shrugging. "I don't know."

She rushed into me, grabbing me by my scarf and pulling me towards her. I could feel her hot breath in my face as she growled out, "You're lying! Tell me the truth or…"

She was quickly shoved away from me by the other woman, the one that I believed was nicer. It would seem that I was right in my assessment. "We need her, Cassandra." The woman said gently with an air of authority.

The much butcher woman, Cassandra, almost growled to the lither woman. "Leliana… we don't have time for this. Everyone is dead! There is a hole in the sky! And demons are raining down on top of us."

"Exactly my point." Leliana stated as she turned to look at me. "Frightening her will not help us learn what happened." She walked over to me, bending down just enough to see me eye-to-eye. "Tell us what you remember." Such a soft understanding compelling voice. I felt like I had to tell her everything I knew.

What I remember? "I can't really remember much…"

Leliana shook her head, smiling lightly. "That's ok. Just tell us what you can." She placed her gloved hand on my check, caressing it just enough that I felt comfortable. Her sharp eyes were baring into mine, offering me the world if I only shared what I knew. And for the exchange of not dying… I think I could recount my day so far.

"Ok…" I nodded, closing my eyes as I tried to drudge up any old thing about the Conclave that I could remember.

…

[Before the Conclave went explodey]

Well to start with, my name is Ellana Lavellan. I'm a hunter from Clan Lavellan. I'm 20 years old, something of a smartass, and… I hate my family. I hate them a lot. Always doting on my younger brother who was born with the gifts of a mage. With our Keeper being old as the Forgotten Ones, we need a new one to take his place. Seeing how we haven't had anyone significantly magically inclined since our ambush a couple years ago… one that killed our First and Second… having my sluggish younger brother express anything close to magic seemed like a godsend from Mythal. It was a chance for our Keeper to share what he knew of our traditional magick before he passed away. My brother would end up being the Keeper of our ancient elven magick and lore. I sure hope they train him well, because he's a bumbling idiot.

Tell us about the Conclave, not your brother. Ok, Cassandra… I will. As I have already told you, I am a hunter. I'm also… kind of a spy. I was sent to the Conclave to spy on the meeting and see if everything would turn out alright. My job was simple… get in… find out how the Conclave was going, write my report, see the Conclave through to the end, and then go home and tell my Keeper either how fucked we were… or how safe we were. The Conclave meeting meant only one thing to my clan… either the end of the war between the two maniac parties: mages and templars…. Or complete destruction of our home. I don't really know why, but that's how my Keeper felt. So, I was sent to the Conclave to report on the Conclave's outcome. If we had to flee even farther up north to escape the inevitable escalated war… I had to be in and out as quickly as possible.

So, you were a spy the whole time. Yes, I just said that. But anyway, back to what I was saying. So, I was at the Conclave, doing my spy duty. You know… gathering intelligence on the people there.

Well… not really. I was hanging around the buffet table shoving those delicious sponge cakes in my face. We don't have them very often in the middle of the woods so… I thought I'd get my fill in before heading home. And… well… as for what happened next, I can't really remember. The first thing I remember was actually shoving my face with all that food, happy that I was getting the chance to do this before heading home. The next memory I have was me leaning over the privy… emptying out my stomach so I could eat more. Not like I wanted to eat though. I just... ate a bit too much the first time and needed an emergency evacuation of everything inside me.

You disgusting pig. Shut up, Cassandra; I'm busy telling you about my involvement at the Conclave. Put the sword down; otherwise, how will you ever find out how the story ends? Good girl. I swear to the Maker when this is all over, I will see your head cleaned off your shoulders. What great motivation I have for ending this story then.

Cassandra… we still need her, so no head chopping today. Thank you, Leliana. So, there I was at the Conclave, so obviously being a spy that no one would ever suspect me of being one.

"See her?" Some mage from beside me at the buffet table looked back at me before talking to her obvious templar boyfriend. "A dalish? Here? Think she's a spy?"

The boyfriend only glanced at me for a second before nodding. "Yeah… I think she is. Who invited a dalish bitch like her to the Conclave anyway?"

I finished shoving a small tort in my mouth before waving at them. "Hello." I somehow managed to push out enough of a welcome that I didn't spit all my tort on the mage's face as I walked past her. It was at that second that I just vomited a bit, some of which splashed on her as I walked past. Just enough to give her an insult for calling me out as a dalish spy. Not that I wanted to… but as I raced past them… I knew she suspected I did it on purpose.

I wanted to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Between the mage and the templar sucking face at the buffet table, the fact that the spiked punch had run dry, and the fact that I just begun vomiting on the face of the mage at the table… I really felt like I needed to leave the room entirely. I raced out of the room, running straight for the privy. As I exited the room, I bumped into some giant of a man… easily ten feet tall, dressed in sickening robes, and carrying this… thingy.

Thingy? What kind of thingy?

I don't know… the kind of thingy I don't focus on when I have vomit spewing through my fingers. I didn't stay to apologize over vomiting on the guy's robes or his orb. I just wanted the crap out of my system, and a proper privy to throw it in. So I ducked past the tall man and his little group of armored thugs. I got in the privy and… that's all I remember.

Oh wait… there was something else. But it wasn't the Conclave. It's what happened after.

Happened after? What do you mean?

I wasn't at the Conclave when I came to. I was lying on jagged rocks. My body felt heavy… heavier than usual. My head was spinning, my left hand burning with some kind of timey-wimey interfering presence. As I opened my eyes, I could see that I was no longer standing at the Conclave… or anywhere that I recognized. The very air felt too thin to be real… the sky nothing but a blurred green light that stretched across as abysmal horizon. The very ground I stood on was shallow and linear… like in a board game or something; obvious borders leading to an eternal fall residing all around me. And all around me… this really thick cloud of debris… like I had somehow survived a coming apocalypse.

It sounds like you ventured into the Fade. Maybe, Leliana. I had no idea where I was, or if what I was experiencing was real or not. All I knew at the time was that I had no idea where I was… or why I was there. Any memory I had before then was gone… conveniently forgotten. I didn't even recognize my own face for the few seconds I tried to reestablish my own identity. Was I a mage? Was I even an elf? Was I blonde, brunette? So many questions going through my mind as I tried to steady myself. And that wasn't the worst of it. The way my head was spinning, I almost felt like my entire identity was being rewritten, like I wasn't a standard version of myself anymore. I remember being a hunter… specializing in my use of knives. I love using knives. I would often dress up in black/green clothes, pull a mask over my face, put my dark auburn hair into a ponytail, and then go stalking in the trees with my bow and arrow, practicing my hunting arts. But even as I drew in that memory, I was scrambling to remember even the slightest of details of the past few minutes. And unfortunately… I didn't have time to reflect on my life. Why not?

Well, as I started to scramble up to my feet… I saw this glowing woman, standing at the top of the linear platform stretched out ahead of me. She was beckoning me with her hand, trying to get me to stand up and go to her. I started to walk to her, tried to get my tired and sluggish legs to walk across the jagged rocks that made up this clearly unstable floating pathway. And for a few steps… it was going great. I could see that this glowing woman was standing next to this green crack in the air. I'm not sure what it was, but it seemed like it was a hole in time and space. I'm not mage so… yeah… I wouldn't know for certain. I just knew that I needed to get up there. The glowing woman would at least be able to tell me what was going on if nothing else. And since I didn't want to just stand there and embrace eternity… I decided to head on up to her and see if she could at least tell me where we were… or what I was.

And that's when I heard it… the clicking. The insufferable clicking. Mandibles clicking, the scuttling of loose legs clambering over loose rock; and as I turned my head around, I saw them. Hundreds and hundreds of scarab beetles, following behind them taller bipedal beetles with four glowing eyes and triangular heads. My one true fear… Collectors. Collectors? Yes… Collectors. From my nightmares. They represented a time when all certainty was stripped away… all possible happy endings erased. Sure, they made a very real threat… but the real threat they represented was a legacy of a perfect ending, the proper pacing dedicated to a glorious success story of overcoming the odds to win… only to be shattered years later with a terribly paced ending, building this massive army for one epic last stand… only to have that ending rushed and disappointing to anyone that played. What are you babbling about? Nothing… just my nightmares… the Collectors. And they were all flying up right behind me, trying to chase me up the jagged pathway up to the glowing lady. If I just reached her in time, I knew I would be safe. My story would not be rushed and ruined by stupidly written plot points. No! My story would be meticulously written out with no surprise plot twist involving a loved one turning their back on me, planning to destroy the world for one selfish desire. Actually… it sounds like a great ending, if not only so it would be a great sequel bait. But anyway… I started climbing as fast as I could; the beetles right behind me, closing in with every breath I took.

"Elvhen…" This one loud intruding voice spoke to me… like it was inside my head. I looked over my shoulder to see the swarms of scarabs flying right behind me, just far enough away that they could be threatening without actually harming me. "You have changed nothing. Your stupidity has brought upon you the attention of those infinitely your greater."

"My gods?" I screamed over my shoulder back at the beetles flying up to swarm me, throwing myself up the pillar as fast as I could. The glowing woman was waiting patiently for me. "My parents? My brother? Fen'Harel?" Oh great Mythal… don't let it be my brother or my parents. I'll gladly face Fen'Harel over my parents any day.

"That which you know as Fen'Harel is your salvation through destruction…" Oh great… it was Fen'Harel. I'm so sorry, Mom and Dad… I never wanted to dishonor our family by drawing the attention of that monster.

As I continued to climb up the jagged rocks, I felt beetles clamping onto my feet, biting at my boots. I was just a few feet from the glowing woman. She had her hand stretched out to take mine… and I was struggling to take hers in return. Energy blasts were raining down all around me, small falling rocks slamming some of the beetles struggling to overwhelm me. And… I reached up with all I had, taking her arm.

The glowing woman picked me up, pulling me up right alongside her. She didn't say anything that I remembered, but she did push me through the glowing crack. And as I started to fall through the crack, I heard the voice cry out. "You have failed me. I will find another way… Red Lyrium control…"

And then I fell through the hole, crashing into more rocks… and that's all I remember. Although there were some ugly boots standing right over me. Looked a lot like the ones Cassandra was wearing right now…

…

[Present]

Just looking up at the red face of Cassandra… I'd say I'd done enough to earn a fast kill. I supported a nice clean death over the long-drawn torture they'd likely give me otherwise. If insulting Cassandra's choice of skull-stompers was a quick ticket to a one-way road to my afterlife… then… why not?

Leliana stood just on the other side of Cassandra, carefully thinking about my story. "A glowing woman."

Cassandra glanced from me over to her. "Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take this storyteller to the rift."

Leliana glanced over to me for a second, bowing to both Cassandra and me before stepping out the door. I almost wanted to have Leliana stay, if not only to protect me from the horrors this other woman wanted to put me through. "And here I thought we were going to have some tea." I sighed as Leliana stepped out the door.

"After this is all finished." Leliana replied from the other side. "I'll gladly join you for a sip."

As soon as Leliana was gone, the brutish Cassandra bent down to grab my shackles. She single-handedly snapped the bars off with barely a squeeze from her hands, grunting as she did so. The metal sundering to her very touch.

"Jeez… you're a beast." I whispered as the shackles fell off my arms.

Cassandra only grunted as she grabbed me by my glowy pulsy hand, heaving me on my feet. "Only when I need to be." She growled back.

"So… I don't remember what happened after I fell through the crack. What happened to the Conclave?" I at least wanted to know for certain that I killed everyone. I heard the whispers from the guards that stood outside my little shack. That's how I knew for certain that I'm a sole survivor and how everyone at the Conclave was dead. But… I needed to hear it for myself.

Cassandra eyed me suspiciously, sighing as she started dragging me behind her. "It will be easier to just show you." She pulled me to follow her outside. She shoved me through the doorway, pointing up at the sky. The sky was how you'd normally see it; bright blue, white clouds… a giant green vortex made up of the same green energy pulsing through my hand. The vortex was easily as large as the mountain it rested on top of. Right above the swirling vortex was a massive hole in the sky, one where I could see the Fade on the other side. Wow… that's… well… shit.

"We call it the Breach." Cassandra gestured to the massive hole in the sky. "It's a massive rift leading to the world of demons and Kardashians. All of which grow larger with each passing hour." Cassandra turned around to look me in the eye. "It's not the only such rift… just the largest." Cassandra sighed. "All the rifts were created by the explosion at the Conclave."

"Wow…" I didn't know an explosion could literally blow open a hole to hell. "That's… well… shit."

Cassandra nodded. "Shit indeed. And unless we act, these rifts and Kardashians will continue to grow in size until they swallow the world."

Right as we looked up at the glowing sky hole, there was a flash of green lightning that arched out of the hole straight through the vortex, slamming right down into the mountain it rested over top of. My hand immediately pulsed, stronger than ever. My vision blurred for a second as my entire hand twisted in on itself, that pressure building and burning greater than ever. It was so intense that I was on my knees, crying out to Mythal to take the pain away.

Cassandra fell down right beside me, shoving her sausage finger in my face again. "Each time that breach expands, that glowing mark on your hand grows too. And it is killing you." She pointed down at my glowing hand. The glow was even brighter than it was before. The pain was a little more severe too. It was going numb all the way up to my wrist. I couldn't feel a thing from it now, excluding the pressurized pain inside it. Great… well… at least I can use this hand to play games later on. "It may be the key to stopping all this… but there isn't much time."

"The key?" A key to what?

Cassandra nodded. "Yes… the key to closing the breach."

So… my glowing hand could somehow make the giant vortex thing vanish? Who the heck thought that was a plausible use of this painful thing growing in my hand? It's not like someone who knew everything about what's going on in my hand could take one look at it, nod, and say, Oh yeah, I know exactly what that is. It's the solution to this problem I sort of started out of vehemence towards humans. A half-baked plan to let someone destroy the world while promising they could become a god.

Cassandra's eyes bore into mine, and she shrugged. I think she could see the level of disbelief in my eyes. "It's not the best plan, but it's the only one we have. The only hope we have of closing that thing… and your only chance at living." Was that a threat… or an observation of the thing growing in my hand?

"Is that a threat? You still think I somehow did this?" I couldn't believe this crap. I gestured to the hole in the sky. "You think I'm capable of that?" I gestured to my hand. "And this? You think I'd want this? When it's killing me?"

Cassandra's eyes deadpanned. She seemed very skeptical of anything I said or did. "You are our only suspect. The only one that survived the explosion at the Conclave. You alone know what happened up there, and whether all you've said is a lie or a slight truth… the fact of the matter remains. You are here… that hole is there… and that thing on your hand is going into that hole to close it."

I couldn't help myself. "Ok… but if my hand's going in the hole… I'm not using two fingers; I'm going full fist." I pumped my fist a few times.

Cassandra only rolled her eyes and groaned as she turned around. "I'm starting to get the feeling that I should have let Leliana take you up to the rift… and I should have gone to the forward camp." She snatched me by my arm and started pulling me to follow her. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we arrive at the breach."

I nodded. "Yeah… and then I'm going to fist it until it implodes on itself." What a great plan. I like this plan.

"Then… you're agreeing to come with me, willingly?" She sounded slightly surprised.

I nodded. "Sure… why not? It's either that or die from an excruciating death, right?"

She nodded. "That would be the alternative. But, realistically, I would beat you up, drag you to the breach and then force you to close it with or without your consent."

I only rolled my eyes. "Jeez, and here I thought the old men of my village were pushy."

She only grunted as she led me towards a bridge. "Ever talk to Varric? I think you two would get along famously."

I shook my head. "Never heard of him."

"Then you're lucky. And so am I." She responded as she led us down the bridge towards the breach. I could see the long path ahead of us. I just hope it's a nice safe walk without any interruptions. I just wanted to get this over with, fix this stupid thing on my hand, and go back home to my family to tell them just how badly I screwed up… yet again. I swear this is the last time I go spying. Every single time I leave the safety of my clan, I end up blowing giant holes in the sky. Or people.

Cearbhail:

So, how's that for a first chapter? Not bad, I think. Probably the strongest opening I've ever had. And yeah, I know that I was going to make her a mage when I first started, but rogues have so much more fun going for them... and I can present her as a ninja too. Also fun.