This story is an AU. It will follow Willa Cousland and Anders through pre-DAO, DAO, DAA and DAII. It will definitely not be a retelling of those games, but the games will be the background for the storyline. I hope you will enjoy Willa and Anders story.
Prologue - Bring Me To Life
"How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb
Without a soul, my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home
Wake me up (Wake me up inside) I can't wake up (Wake me up inside)
Save me (Call my name and save me from the dark)
Wake me up (Bid my blood to run) I can't wake up (Before I come undone)
Save me (Save me from the nothing I've become)
Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real, bring me to life"
Bring Me To Life by Evanescence
Anders had never considered himself a lucky person; quite the opposite actually - if it weren't for bad luck he wouldn't have any luck at all. You had to be a seriously unfortunate individual to be born with magic coursing through your veins. Although, unlike some of his fellow mages, he never thought of magic as a curse. He had always believed that was rubbish passed on by the Chantry to justify ripping families apart and locking up individuals who were more powerful and therefore feared. However, being born with magical abilities did make for a hard, rough and at times a oppressive life.
Anders had been torn away from his family when he was twelve. On good days he would say that was twelve wonderful years that he had with a mother who had loved him and who had cried for him when the templars dragged him away. On bad days, which were more prevalent than the good ones, he wished he had been removed from his home at a much younger age so that the memories of being loved and cared for weren't so strong and vibrant and that the sense of freedom that had been lost when he had been taken didn't course so strongly through his veins.
It was that loss of freedom that he had driven him to attempt to escape the tower only eight months after he had been brought to the Ferelden Circle. He had only been free for twenty four hours before the Templars dragged him back, but those few precious hours of independence only further fueled his desire to escape the prison that he had been forced to return to. His next escape had been better planned and it had taken the Templars six months to track him down. This time he had returned to the Circle a little more bruised and bloody, but those six months of freedom had been worth the asskicking he had received. Over the next nine years he had made six more escapes. Each time the Templars brought him back they vowed to teach him a lesson through harsher punishments and each time it only strengthened his resolve to be free.
It was on this last escape that he considered the possibility that maybe his luck might actually be changing. He had made his way to Highever. He had heard rumors that the Teryn there was a fair, just man and that he did more than tolerate magic that he actually had a mage in his employ. Anders found it difficult to believe that the Chantry would willingly allow one of their mages to live outside the Circle. He didn't care how powerful or influential that man was he couldn't fathom the Chantry giving up one of their own and he would have never believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.
Anders had been truly shocked by what he had discovered. By all accounts Tyce Dumant, the Highever healer, was a free mage. The Circle sent a Templar from the local Chantry several times a month to check up on Tyce, but for the most part he was free to come and go as he pleased because he was such an adapt healer, he had earned the respect of the people of Highever, and he was loyal and devoted to the Couslands who treated him as a beloved member of the family. Anders had never expected to find a nobleman so readily accept one mage let alone two of them.
For once Lady Fortune smiled on him the day that Tyce had discovered Anders sleeping in one of the Cousland's outlying hunting lodges. The enchanter had immediately sensed the magic in Anders and knew that he was an apostate. At the very least Tyce could have kicked him out, telling him to never come back or worst case turned him over to the Chantry, but the mage did neither. Instead, he risked everything by offering Anders sanctuary...a safe haven.
As luck would have it when Anders arrived in Highever a plague had begun to breakout through the terynship. It was a horrific disease that was wiping entire villages before a healer could even arrive. The scope of the situation was really more than one mage could handle on his own. Anders arriving at the start of the epidemic provided a perfectly logical reason for the sudden appearance of another mage and because the Couslands accepted his presence, no one, not even the Chantry Templar, questioned his arrival.
As warm, welcoming and accepting as everyone had been since he had arrived, Anders knew his phylactery would eventually draw the templars to Highever, but he knew he would be long gone before they arrived. He would not allow the corrupt, oppressive Circle to bring any harm to the man that had sheltered him, mentored him and treated him like family nor would he allow the Circle to punish the family that had so readily accepted and welcomed him. However, the plague would give him additional time before he had to move on. No Templar would willingly set foot in Highever while an active pandemic was taking place.
Despite the overabundance of the sick and dying, Anders found that he really liked Highever - with its lush, green fields, the sweet aroma of Highever Jasmine in the air and lasses so succulent he could nibble on them for hours. He honestly never wanted to leave. It was like paradise here. He had only been at the Castle for two months, but he had already managed to bed two chambermaids and the baker's daughter. Tyce warned him that although the Highever ladies were prettier, their father's were meaner and if he wasn't careful he might wake up one morning to discover his third leg missing. Anders chuckled and promised to be more discreet in the future. That vow lasted one day because the following morning Lady Wilhelmina Cousland rode into the courtyard after spending the summer in Amaranthine accompanied by her brother, his wife and son and the Arl of Amaranthine's son, Nathaniel Howe.
Anders stood dumbfounded in the shadows of the castle as he watched her tall, yet curvaceous frame dismount her horse then elegantly glided across the courtyard as her dark, red mahogany tresses flowed behind her. She was the most gorgeous creature he had ever laid eyes on.
"Pup!" Bryce Cousland bellowed.
Lady Cousland's piercing green eyes danced with delight as she watched her father rush down the stairs toward her. The sweetest laugh he had ever heard escaped her lips as her father swept her into his arms to spin her around.
"D-dad, it's good to see you too..." she choked out as she patted his back. "B-but I can't breath."
The Teryn released her then kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry I just got carried away. Three months is way too long, Willa."
"Lad, you have better chance of seducing Andraste then you do of bedding Lady Willa and you will stand a better chance of surviving the Maker's wrath for attempting such feat then facing the ire of Bryce Cousland for trying to seduce his most prized possession," Tyce voice chuckled from behind him.
"How can you say that? The Lady has yet to even meet me. You never know, she may find my rugged good looks irresistible and we both know the Teryn finds me charming and funny."
"He won't see the humor in you trying to charm your way into his daughter's smalls. You have all the women and probably a lot of the men in Highever to seduce. Lady Willa is off limits. Do you understand me, Anders?" Tyce warned, all humor now gone from his voice.
He turned to looked at his mentor and saw the serious look in the mage's eyes that flickered with both alarm and fear. Anders could understand the man's distress. A mage involved with the daughter of the second highest ranking noble in all of Ferelden would bring disgrace to both the title and the family. Not to mention that since Anders was only here under Tyce's protection pursuing the Teryn's daughter could jeopardize everything that Tyce had been working for.
"I understand," Anders conceded.
"Good. Now I need your assistance with a family in the village that has fallen to the plague."
Anders nodded has watched Willa Cousland disappear into the sanctuary of the castle.
Remaining true to his word, over the next month Anders watched Willa from a distance completely enthralled with the young, vivacious girl. Yes, she was beautiful, but as he watched her interactions with others he was drawn to her kind heart, her wicked sense of humor and her mischievous spirit, even her fiery temper enticed him. It was as if her very presence had awoken something deep inside him, something he didn't even know was there and inexplicably it was drawing him to her. He was finding it increasingly more difficult to stay away from her. He made excuses throughout the day to seek her out just so that he could watch her from the shadows, but because of his vow to Tyce he never approached her. Although he was finding it harder and harder not approach her. He wanted...no he needed to get to know her. His attraction to her only grew stronger with each passing day. It was maddening and it kept him awake at night.
It was on one such night he thought about how fiercely she had battled in the sparring ring earlier that day against one of the Castle's squires. She was quick, agile and had a tactical mind. However, the squire's strength eventually defeated her speed, but Anders knew with more time and training she would become a deadly opponent. He had relished in the way her eyes had danced as she calculated her next move, and he had laughed at the dirty innuendos she had so casually let roll off her tongue to distraction to her opponent. However, it was in the moment of her defeated as she resigned the fight to the squire, and a slew of curse words had flown out her mouth that would have made a pirate proud that Anders knew that he had to do whatever it took to meet her.
However, he promised himself that he wouldn't sleep with her, that he just wanted to get to know her, that he just wanted to be friends with her...nothing more...just friends. What was the harm in that? Even though she was beautiful, enticing, such a sweet temptation and he knew it would be hard not to want more, not to push for more, he vowed to remain true to promise to Tyce. He would not seduce the alluring Lady Cousland, he would find the strength to just be her friend. He maybe playing with fire, but he was expert at manipulating flames and he would make sure that neither one of them got burned.
