Chapter 1
Flight of the Witch
And at the End of Days, Justice shall fall. But vengeance is only the beginning. A Blight will cover this land, unrest will be kindled and the sky will be torn open as the world shatters and Sanctuary will be found. So it is, so it shall be.
"Hurry! She ran this way!" Morrigan shouted, running as fast as her legs could carry her through the Kocari Wilds. Her black hair was coming undone as she ran, branches scratching at her bare arms. Her mother had taught her tracking well, maybe a little too well since she was now using those same skills to follow her through the Wilds.
"You do realise that thick armour hampers speed, yes?" Alistair called ahead, trying to keep up with the mage.
"Your thick head is enough to hamper your speed. Now, move!" she shouted without a backward glance.
Leliana was right behind Morrigan, her red hair flying. She had an arrow held slack on her bow string, trying to get a good enough opportunity to shoot at their quarry. Ganethar, the other surviving Grey Warden apart from Alistair, was not far behind Leliana. The elven mage cast a haste spell on Alistair so he could keep up as he was starting to lag behind the rest of them. His plated armour, sword and shield weighing him down.
They were pursuing Flemeth, the legendary Witch of the Wilds. Whilst cleansing Kinloch Hold, the Circle of Magi's tower, from demons, Ganethar happened across Flemeth's lost grimoire locked in a chest. He had given it to Morrigan for study. After several days, she had come to his tent and told him what she had learned from the book. Apparently, Flemeth had birthed many daughters over the centuries and when they were ready, she would take over their bodies, young again, until she ages and requires a new body. With this startling fact, Ganethar decided he would hunt down Flemeth and kill her before she could take over Morrigan. Concerned that killing her mother might cause her mother to possess her, Morrigan opted to stay at camp whilst Ganethar, Alistair, Leliana and Wynne had gone to deal with Flemeth. The wait, driving her almost insane, caused her to follow them in secret and watch the battle between her companions and Flemeth from afar.
Her mother had transformed into a magnificent dragon. From her hiding place she saw Ganethar blasting at Flemeth's hide with concentrated spheres of ice, Wynne with blasts of fire. Leliana launched arrow after arrow at Flemeth's face, trying to get at her fierce yellow eyes. Alistair had gone straight for Flemeth's legs. The battle was fierce and swift, going in Flemeth's favour until Wynne drew energy from the earth and hurled a fist of stone right into Flemeth's left eye. Flemeth had responded by smashing Wynne with her tail, causing the old mage to fly through the air and land with a hard thud some distance away. She was out cold if not dead. Alistair had used the opportunity to jump and slash right through Flemeth's wing, cutting off a retreat by air. The roar she issued was loud and stunning. They covered their ears and were blinded by a flash of light as Flemeth reverted to her human form. She was bleeding and wheezing but turned tail and ran out into the swamp. Morrigan burst from her hiding place and gave chase, stopping only long enough to get the others to follow her. Now they were barrelling through the denser parts of the Wilds, to parts even she did not know, which was quite odd.
"Why do you hunt your poor mother so?" Flemeth shouted as Morrigan gained ground on her after she had transformed herself into a wolf.
Flemeth kept running alongside a cliff, showing no signs of fatigue. The cliff cast a shadow over them as they kept giving chase. All of a sudden, Flemeth turned right and vanished.
Wolf-Morrigan skidded to a halt where Flemeth had vanished and returned to her human state.
"Where did she go?" Leliana asked, coming to a halt as well.
Morrigan held her hand up for silence as she looked around. Her chest was heaving from the running and sweat trickled down her face. She took her gnarled branch of a staff and started tapping against the cliff. Ganethar came up to them, huffing and clutching a stitch in his side. Alistair finally joined them and immediately fell on his butt from exhaustion. He drank from a water bottle and held it out to Ganethar, who happily took a healthy gulp.
"It would seem she entered a cave. 'Tis an illusion this part," Morrigan said, indicating a part of the cliff that looked quite inconspicuous. She tried to prod the wall with her staff and it went straight through.
"How did you know?" Leliana asked.
"I felt magic in the air here. I assumed a glamour of some kind since not even the great Flemeth could simply vanish into thin air."
"I have met a mage who can," Alistair said, getting back to his feet.
"Is that so?" she asked, sounding unconvinced.
"Yes! Was a real pain to fight. I mean, you swipe your sword and then it goes through nothing but air? And then you get blasted by a fireball in the back? I have had fun in my life, but that did not qualify."
"Such magic is possible. Perhaps your mother could do it without you knowing," Ganethar said.
"The possibility exists but is rather moot. Flemeth did not vanish. She is inside," Morrigan said, gesturing at the wall.
Without waiting for a response, she walked through the illusion into a lit cave. The cave appeared to be rounded and the ceiling was lost in darkness. The walls were carved in magnificent patterns the likes they had never seen before. In the centre of the cave, upon a raised dais, stood a large, ornate mirror. Flemeth was in front of it.
"An eluvian!" Morrigan breathed, momentarily stunned by the mirror.
"A what?" Alistair said.
"An eluvian! A transport mirror used by the elves of Arlathan. I had thought them all destroyed or corrupted…"
The mirror was starting to glow.
"She must not step through!" Morrigan shouted and released a bolt of lightning from the palm of her hand.
Flemeth was halfway through the mirror went the bolt struck her in the small of the back. Lightning arced over the mirror. Flemeth fell forward and through. The eluvian started shuddering. Morrigan ran and went through, followed by Leliana and Alistair. Just as Ganethar reached it, the mirror exploded, sending shards of glass and stone in every direction. He cast a magical shield to protect himself against the shards but saw that his companions were gone and without the eluvian, how would they return?
Morrigan found herself in what appeared to be the burning ruins of a town. Leliana was at her side, an arrow nocked and at the ready. Alistair was peering around them, looking for Flemeth.
"Did she do this?" Leliana asked.
Before Morrigan could answer, they were surrounded by seven people that looked quite foreign to them. They had weapons and they didn't look friendly. Then over one of the new arrivals' shoulders, Morrigan saw her target.
"Mother!" she shouted.
Flemeth turned and a great ball of fire flew at them. Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana dived aside. The mirror shattered and vanished. Morrigan pushed herself up and found that Flemeth had gotten away.
"Blast it all!"
"Who are you?" asked one of the people, his sword pointed in Morrigan's direction.
Her eyes swept over these people that were in her way now. The man with the sword also carried a shield. He was dark of skin and the light of the fires shimmered on his polished plate mail. There was a large, hulking, brute of a man that reminded her of the Chasind back in the Kocari Wilds. Most of his head was shaved apart from a knot of black hair pulled up with a leather strap. He wore no armour and blue warpaint covered his chest and face. He seemed to wear a type of kilt made from animal skins. A woman, shorter than Morrigan, with tanned skin and flowing black hair was leaning against a staff. Green cloth covered her arms and breasts, leaving her midsection exposed and her outfit concluded with a black short skirt, boots and a golden diadem upon her head. A man stood slightly to the back, covered with cloth and wolf pelts, his red hair blazing even in the dark. There was a tall and powerfully built woman with long blond hair, tied back neatly, a spear strapped to her back. In her hands was a bow with an arrow nocked and pointed straight at Leliana. A man with long, deathly white hair and armour that seemed to consist of bones surveyed them through pale eyes. The last person Morrigan had initially missed but saw her now. A woman dressed all in black with raven dark hair, a blade fastened to each hand at the wrist.
"Leave us be," Morrigan said.
"Are you aligned with the Dark Wanderer?" the woman with the long black hair asked.
"Who?" Alistair asked.
"We are following a woman," Leliana added.
"They came from a portal. I say we kill them just to be safe," said the large man.
"I would advise against that," Morrigan said darkly.
The large man pulled a large axe from his belt and moved forward. Morrigan took her staff and blasted him with a bolt of fire. It struck him on the shoulder but he merely shrugged it off although the burn looked ugly. The woman with the staff and the red-haired man made motions but nothing happened.
"Mages. I've got them," Alistair said, using his templar training to great effect.
The two magic users looked utterly confounded that their magic was not reacting to their summons. They were utterly powerless and had no choice but to rely on their weapons.
Leliana loosed her arrow just as the other woman loosed her own. The two arrows miraculously struck each other in mid-air. Leliana turned tail and ran, seeking cover as more arrows zipped past her. The man with the white hair pulled a dagger from its sheath and lunged at Morrigan. She brushed the dagger aside with her staff and punched him on the nose. She turned and unleashed a stream of lightning at the two mages Alistair had incapacitated. Alistair was busy fighting both the brutish man and the dark one in the armour. He blocked and parried, trading slashes back and forth, holding his own rather well. Arrows zipped from behind a low wall where the blond woman had taken cover. Leliana had taken cover behind a tree and retaliated with arrows of her own. But her quiver was starting to empty which was worrying.
Suddenly, all of them froze as a shadow passed over them all, chilling them to the bone. An explosion came from nearby followed by squeals of delight. As they all turned, tiny, blue, impish creatures ran at them with swords drawn.
"Carvers!" the woman in black shouted.
She alone had not participated in the battle. She plunged her hand into a sack that hung at her waist and threw something through the air at the attacking creatures. There was a small explosion that blasted the creatures into the air. Some were totally obliterated, merely a red mist. Those that were downed got back up again. Before their eyes, wounds were closing themselves; burns were healing at an impressive rate.
"There must be Shamans somewhere," said the blond woman. She blocked a blade with her bow and it was sliced neatly in two.
She kicked the creature back and unstrapped her spear. She skewered the creature and pulled the spear free before running into the mass of monsters. Her companions followed suite. Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana were all but forgotten.
"Should we help?" Alistair asked uncertainly.
"Why should we help? They tried to kill us," Morrigan replied. Leliana was picking up arrows from the battlefield, making sure her quiver was full.
"If we want to get to Flemeth, we need to get through those creatures. We might as well aid them," she pointed out.
Morrigan huffed and agreed finally.
Alistair charged forward and knocked one of the Carvers through the air with his shield. He slashed and hacked at all before him, side-by-side with the other man with the sword and shield. Morrigan stayed back and assailed the group with bolts of fire. Leliana was picking them off one by one with well-aimed arrows. In no time at all, the creatures were lying dead.
"If we don't get the Shamans, they will rise again," said the black-clad woman.
She ran into the collection of destroyed buildings. The others followed. A broken cage was on the floor of the village centre. A once beautiful fountain was in pieces. There were three Shamans around the broken fountain. Horns grew from their heads and they wielded a staff in one hand and a dagger in the other. As they rounded the corner, a great ball of fire was hurled by each of them. Morrigan called up a magical shield. Most of the attack was absorbed by the shield but Morrigan was still pushed back hard into a wall. Leliana unleashed another arrow that buried itself deeply into the forehead of the first Shaman. The giant man hurled an axe which embedded itself in the second Shaman's chest. The red-haired man blasted a stream of ice at the final Shaman, who froze solid. The man with the sword and shield made a hammer appear from nowhere and hurled it at the frozen Shaman, who shattered once the hammer made contact.
"I suppose we should thank you for the aid," the dark-skinned man said, sheathing his sword.
"I suppose you should," Morrigan said.
"Now, let us try again, who are you?"
"If names are important, you may call me Morrigan. The slattern is Leliana and the oaf is Alistair."
"Really?" Alistair and Leliana said in unison, frowning at Morrigan.
"I am Phados, a Paladin of the Zakarum Faith. My companions are Zafos of the Necromancers, Assalin of the Assassin Clan, Dalon of the Barbarian tribes, Sithia of the Zann Esu clan, Kalia of the Amazon people and Maddim of the Druid tribes."
Each of them nodded in acknowledgement as their name was announced.
"You do not seem to belong here. From where do you come?" asked Phados.
"We are from Ferelden. What part of Thedas is this?" Leliana asked.
"The names Ferelden and Thedas are unknown to me. This is the world of Sanctuary. This was the town of Tristram, capital of Khanduras before its destruction," said the sorceress Sithia.
"Perhaps this is an uncharted area of Thedas?" Alistair asked.
"It has to be. The eluvian could not have taken us anywhere else," Morrigan said, though she didn't sound entirely sure.
"You mean the portal that brought you here?" Dalon the barbarian asked.
"It was a portal of sorts, I suppose. It was a mirror used by the ancient elves for travelling," Morrigan said.
"What are elves?"
"You have got to be kidding me, right? Pretending not to know what elves are, good one!" Alistair said with a forced laugh.
When he met their blank expressions, he came to realise that these people truly did not know what elves were. He tried to explain best he could but the others claimed never to have heard of such a creature before.
"Such things do not exist in Sanctuary," said Phados, "and in any case, they sound heretical. If they ever existed here, Zakarum faithful might have purged them from this land."
"Another faith who hunts down those who do not share their belief," Morrigan said with obvious disdain.
"Do you not believe?" asked Phados.
"Oh I believe, just not what you mean I would guess. I believe in what I will. Do I share your belief of Zakarum and whichever god or gods you follow? No. Nor do I believe in the Maker. Belief in some higher power is a waste. I believe in me," said Morrigan.
"Do not make this a battle of faith," said Zafos when Phados opened his mouth angrily.
"She is not of Zakarum!" Phados said loudly.
"Nor am I. I will choose to believe in Rathma always instead of Akarat. One's belief does not make one a good person. One's actions does. Look at Archbishop Lazarus. Highly ranked in the Zakarum Church and yet it was through his machinations that Diablo was unleashed upon Tristram and we now have the Dark Wanderer to worry about. It is because of him that Khanduras has no king."
Phados said nothing but had a rather ugly look on his face.
"We should get back to Akara and Deckard Cain. See what other aid we could lend to them and what information Cain might have," said Sithia.
"You should join us. Perhaps Deckard Cain can shed some light on your situation. He is the last of the Horadrim and thus has access to stores of knowledge that we do not," said Maddim the Druid.
"I just want Flemeth. That is all I care about," said Morrigan.
"The old woman? She would be long gone by now, I'd wager," said Phados.
"I sense something," Alistair said suddenly, looking around with wary eyes.
"What is it?" asked Leliana.
"Darkspawn, but far away. I haven't felt such a powerful presence since the Archdemon. It seems to be heading east," said Alistair.
"You must come with us," said Sithia.
From a bag strapped to her hip, she pulled a scroll. She unfurled and spoke in a strange language. The scroll floated from her hand, vanished, and in its place appeared a glowing blue light. Each of the seven walked up to it and through it, vanishing completely.
"I have never seen magic like that," Leliana said curiously.
"Nor have I," said Morrigan, her interest peaked.
She walked through the portal, the other two following her inside.