Sickness, that is what ravages the land like no tomorrow once again. It makes its hearth in the same, small village that it had all those years ago where a clan of once nomadic Dalish still live peacefully on the western side of the Frostback Mountains. This is the third outbreak that their village has experienced and it leaves many of them wondering if this is intentional. Perhaps the Creators were punishing them for no longer drifting from place to place, for leaving the Dales, for trading with shemlen more often than they should be. The list is a lengthy one that continues to grow daily, but they couldn't dwell on it when the Keeper's apprentice's daughter had fallen ill with the strange and persistent disease. The girl is barely fourteen summers old and the sickness infecting her is fatal, one that even a healthy adult in their prime had a hard time overcoming. The girl is deathly pale and barely breathing. Her eyes have been shut for the past week and she has yet to awaken from her magic-induced slumber. It had been the only way to keep her symptoms from progressing but it wasn't helping her get better. Her younger brother is about ten summers and is always hanging around her despite his parents' warnings to stay away lest he too gets the sickness. His sister is his idol, constantly giving him the inspiration to be a better person and how to properly act. With her confined to her bed, he feels that it's his job to look after her, so one night when their parents had gone to bed, he snuck into her room and he curled up beside her to keep her company. However, the next morning, he did not awaken while his sister did. Having contracted the deadly illness sometime in the middle of the night, he expired long before anyone awoke but his passing spirit must have given his sister the energy and power to defeat the sickness for her fever has broken and her eyes are open, staring at the ceiling with confusion. She can feel her brother's body beside her and she smiles, not realising that he is dead.

"Aneth ara, brother," she greets warmly, reaching over and touching his arm. She is greeted by cold and stiff flesh and she knows what that means. Tears well in her eyes and she cries out, "Mother! Father!"

Her parents rush into the room, their faces alight with joy and relief that their daughter is awake, but when she turns her tear-stained face toward them, they realise something is not right. Her brother is lying still -too still- at her side and they walk toward the bed. Her father touches the young Elvhen boy and his face pales. He quickly picks his son up and he heads to their Keeper to make the proper preparations. The older Elvhen woman holds her daughter as she sobs heartbrokenly into her shirt, clinging to it as if she was going to disappear as well. Their numbers are dwindling much faster than they should be and they just might have to abandon their camp to find a better place. If this disease is something that they are all infected with to varying degrees, then they could wipe out the entire Dalish culture but they could not stay there.

Her slumber was interrupted by pain spiking from her hand up to her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open and the first thing she heard was a painful crackling as more pain filled the entirety of her left arm. Looking down through blurry eyes, she saw a green glow emanating from her hand. The next thing she noticed was the thick manacles around her wrists and she was very confused by this. She heard something off to her left and came face to face with the point of a blade. As she looked around she saw that there were four men, each with their swords trained on her. The door in front of her was kicked wide open which made the woman jump and swiftly face forward. Two silhouettes advanced toward her. One was large, bearing a sword and shield while the other was smaller but had a dangerous air about them. As they drew closer the captive woman could see that both of them were women and the men guarding her swiftly took a large step back as they sheathed their weapons simultaneously. She had long since forgotten about her puzzling dream as the armed woman started to circle her like a hungry beast. Her ears twitched, listening as the woman came to a stop behind her. The captive could hear the leather creak softly and her armour tap against her sword as she leaned down close to her ear.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now," she demanded softly in a heavily accented voice. She straightened and began to slowly continue her path. "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead...except for you." Her voice wavered and the captive noticed the smaller woman looking to the warrior with concern. The silence from the captive seemed to anger the warrior, so she bent down and lifted the woman's arm, the one with the glow. "Explain this," she hissed. As if on cue, the light burst to life and crackled angrily. She then threw her hand down and glared accusingly at her captive.

"Ar te'elan," she replied, her voice tight with pain.

The warrior baulked and she looked to the hooded woman for help. She did not speak elven, that much was clear and it gave their captor some satisfaction. That is until she heard the other human woman speak.

"She says that she can't," she translated.

"Ma eolasas Elvhen?" the prisoner asked, clearly shocked. "Ane shemlen."

That brought a chuckle out of her which made the elf sit up straighter. How could a human know the language of her people? That...that was a relief as well as a reason to worry. It meant that this woman had been in contact with a Dalish elf long enough to learn the language. She was glad the warrior was no longer stalking her like prey, but now the hooded woman approached her and she was much more threatening than the warrior. The elf leaned back a little in fear, her shoulders shaking subtly which gave away her fear.

"Can you remember what happened? How it all began?" Her voice was accented as well but it wasn't nearly as thick as the warrior's was.

The elf sighed. She couldn't keep up the appearance that she didn't know Common when this woman was being kinder to her than anyone else. She said, "I remember...running. Things were chasing me and then...a woman." There were tiny shreds of memory that were slowly falling into place, giving her a grey and blurry image of what she could recall.

"A woman?"

"She reached out to me, but then..." The elf's voice lifted like she was able to remember more, but when the fragments fell away, leaving her with more questions as she sagged in defeat and stared at her chained hands with sadness.

"Leliana, go to the forward camp. I will take her to the rift," the warrior said softly.

The elf lifted her head in surprise. She had no idea the warrior was capable of such a gentle tone. She assumed that she was harsh all the time but this proved her wrong. She was being approached by the human now and she was on high alert. However, instead of hurting her, she bent down and began to unlock the manacles.

"What did happen?" the elf asked gently.

She wasn't given an answer immediately. No, the warrior focused on tying her wrists together with some rope while possibly chewing her reply over. When the answer did come, it wasn't what she had been expecting. "It...would be easier to show you."

Aneth ara = A friendly greeting

Ar te'elan = I cannot

Ma eolasas Elvhen = You understand Elvhen

Ane shemlen = You are human

A/N: So this is my first Dragon Age fanfiction. Actually, this is my first fanfiction in years, so I expect this to be utter crap and I hope to get reviews correcting me on anything that is wrong. Thank you for reading this.