Disclaimer: I am making no claim to Dragon Age Origins, the plot, the setting, or associated trademarks. This is a work of fanfiction created for personal enjoyment
Rivalry
He came to the tower mere days after her; a rough looking boy from the Alienage in Denerim who spoke to no one, and merely took a bunk in the far corner of the apprentice rooms. She hated him the moment she saw him.
The next morning she found him after lessons, curled up in a windowsill reading a book. She walked right up to him and reminded him of the fact he was a knife-ears and thus inferior to her. He rolled his eyes, called her a shem, and promptly ignored her. It had made her so mad she had punched him in the face. In hindsight it would have been better to wait until there wasn't a templar in the same room, witnessing the entire thing. The elf got sent to the infirmary with a bloody nose. She got chewed out by the Revered Mother. But what really got her, was that she saw him smirk at her as she was being led away.
She swore she would put him in his place if it was the last thing she did.
It turned out to be easier said than done. While his only friend was that fool Jowan, he was always polite to everyone, and thus had no one else to call his enemy.
She had tried to get him into trouble numerous times. However, he always ignored her attempts to goad him into a fight and the numerous dares she tried to get him to do. She had once broken a window in the library, and had attempted to blame him for it. She had even convinced several other kids to back her story. It failed. He had been helping the Revered Mother clean the tower chantry the entire morning.
He did better at magic than she did as well. While simple shields, glyphs, and hexes seemed to give him trouble, he could patch wounds with ease, freeze the air around him with a wave of his hand, light a fireplace with a careless snap of his fingers, and harden his skin till it was like rock. She had to keep close watch on her fires, or they would either die or spill out of the grate. She could barely chill a glass of water, or mend a scraped knee.
Her complaints got the reply. "Well, he is an elf. Magic does come easier to them after all."
That only served to irritate her more.
When the time came for them to be assigned a mentor, she worked hard to impress the Enchanters, performing flashy spells and proving her obvious superiority. He continued life as usual, chatting to Jowan about numerous inane things, reading in a quiet spot, or wandering the tower grounds.
He became First Enchanter Irving's apprentice. She got assigned to Enchanter Ella, an ancient husk of a woman who frequently forgot things, and spent half the time cooing over the overgrown rat she called a dog.
It was soon clear that he was thriving under the First Enchanter's tutelage. He could sometimes be seen talking with the senior mages, whose company he seemed to prefer to that of the other apprentices. His magic abilities advanced in leaps and bounds. But it wasn't just spells he was learning. Irving was also teaching him about people; how to make one's self seem more intimidating, how to speak to put people at ease, and how to draw the truth out of someone with only a few words.
She spent most of her time trying to find the various things her mentor misplaced, the little rat's yapping drove her crazy, and she knew she was not learning as much as many of her stupidest peers were.
She sometimes heard Irving praise him as a prodigy. The other mages all agreed he would definitely go far. The most praise she got was when Ella thanked her for finding the slippers that got pushed under the bed, and she knew many of the other apprentices often called her a bitch behind her back.
When she was called to do her Harrowing, she felt a degree of smugness that she would become a full member of the circle before him.
She was trapped in the fade for nearly two whole days, desperately struggling to prevent the demon from taking control of her body, and when she awoke she was coolly informed that the templars had been just about to kill her.
His Harrowing was one of the quickest and cleanest in the history of the Circle. His cunning allowed him to escape the dangers of the Fade with ease. She hated him all the more for that.
She was sneaking into the pantry for a late snack when she saw Jowan dabbling in blood magic. She reported it to Gregoir immediately, seeing her chance to finally strike the elf where it hurt.
She was lurking outside the office when he heard about the decision to make Jowan a tranquil. He betrayed Jowan to Irving in a heartbeat, gleefully agreeing to lead his friend into a trap. As he left the office, he suddenly looked her in the eye, smirked, and waved.
She learned later that Jowan managed to slip through the templars hands with his blood magic. The elf had been given the honour of joining the Grey Wardens, and Irving was shinning with pride at his pupil's loyalty to the Circle. Her only consolation was that he was now gone.
She didn't see him again until after the defeat at Ostagar. Uldred's revolution has gone bad. Her and several of her fellow revolutionaries have barricaded themselves in one of the rooms when he came up the stairs. He brought the fury of the elements down on both the demons and her fellow blood-mages. Swirling storms of fire cleansed entire rooms, bursts of freezing air stopped even the raging abominations, and crackling bursts of lighting felled even the controlled templars.
His golem smashed through the barricade and crushed one of her comrade's heads like a piece of fruit. His Mabari knocked another to the floor and ripped out his throat. She tried desperately to use her blood-magic, but Senior Enchanter Wynne was reciting the Litany of Andralla, rendering her powers useless.
He didn't even use magic against her, he just walked right up to her and stabed her through the heart with a dalish dagger. As her remaining life slipped away, he whispered in her ear.
"I've never been inferior to you Amell."
Authors Note: Another Dragon Age drabble… like my others (Reunion, Shadows, Regret,) they are concered with the story of my "Secretly Dark" elven mage.
In the game it is a given that the "other" origin stories happen with varying degrees of success. But I've always wondered if Surana and Amell… how do I say it… both existed at the same time… (ex. If you play as Amell does that mean Surana never existed, or did he say fail his/her harrowing?)
Just my little take on my thinkings.