These beautiful characters all belong to Bioware even though Amell is technically an OC...

But anyway onward!

Edit: Okay people I fiiinaally got the muse for this story now that I've changed it to third… and now it's just better (I hope). Yeah so no longer hiatus, and the hiatus was me just being a butt, and now that I have a new muse I should be able to get new chapters out! So have some revised chapters and a new one will be out very very soon!

"Ahaha you can't catch me!"

"Sierra! Wait! We can't go here, it's getting late and curfew will be in effect soon!" Sierra heard Jowan yelling behind me but she was having far too much fun to turn back now. She suddenly stopped and turned towards him.

"Look Jowan, if you're going to be such a stick in the mud you can go back. Besides I want to show him that spell I finally perfected." She turned back around and continued exploring the fourth floor of the Circle.

Jowan snorted. "Yeah right you just want to know what is happening and why there is no one around for some strange reason." Sierra smiled wolfishly. It was curious that they had yet to be seen by templars or see the templars themselves. Or anyone for that matter. Not that she was complaining or anything. She heard a groan behind her and then there was a fidgeting Jowan beside me.

"Hey where d'you suppose all the templars are? I mean I mentioned it but it is weird that there are none here…"

"Probably off deciding what to do with young mages that skip their bed time." She looked at him with another wolfish grin on her face and then proceeded to laugh at his worried comment proceeded by the incredulous look on his face. His question was obviously meant to be serious. Not that she cared and Jowan who had been lost in his thoughts had lagged behind and then proceeded to bump into me. She looked back at him and whispered. "The fifth floor." The Harrowing Chamber.

"There is no way we are going up there. No, none at all." She raised my eyebrow at him. "Sierra we are fourteen years old. We won't know for a while what goes on up there." I looked at him and then turned to the stairs. "Well then are you coming with me back downstairs or not?" Jowan was not pleased when he got my answer.

"You go on back. I'll catch up later."

Jowan sighed "Fine then, it's your funeral." And with those final words he actually left.

Sierra looked down the hall to see Jowan's robes fluttering behind him as he scurried away. Good thing he left she thought. She was tired of his senseless prattling anyway. She immediately felt shame as she erased her thoughts. She shouldn't be too harsh, he only means well anyway. She shook my head and looked around. Still no one. Things were starting to get a little suspicious but oh well! She took a determined huff and started to climb the stairs. There are not that many stairs actually. She stopped dead in her tracks as she heard Irving and Greagoir's voice. She hid from the open doors side.

"So Irving, how is the training of that star pupil of yours going?" Greagoir seemed genuinely curious which earned him a suspecting glare from Irving.

"It... is going much faster and better than expected. She learns the concept behind the magic faster than anyone I've seen. She also is capable of perfecting a spell at the end of two classes, if she puts effort into it. She finds many things fascinating but unfortunately they are far above her year." Sierra's heart swelled with pride as she heard the approval within his voice. "Why must you ask?" Irving was now turned away from the mage woman who was... glowing? What is this? Is the Harrowing even about?

"I'm just curious as to why you treat her differently than all the others. I mean you have treated her differently than all the other students that you have chosen to mentor yourself." The tone seemed friendly but Irving heard the underlying message.

"Treat her in what way exactly my friend?" Irving had a fire in his eyes, a fire she had yet seen. She turned her attention from their conversation, uninterested in what was being implied in the interaction, to the templars surrounding the room. Many shifted, rolled their shoulders or ankles, stretched, did anything to pass the time. Some templars wore helmets, others did not. The ones with helmets on, she suspected had had bad experiences with Harrowings in the past. She looked around to notice that many of these templars were very familiar. All of them in fact except for one that is. He seemed bored yet ready for anything. He had blond hair spiked at the front, and a brown-gold eye colour. He looked a little smaller than the rest of the templars that were around the room.

With Sierra lost in her thoughts of judging the new templar, she hardly had time to recognize a scream and a flash of light.

The mage woman had not (she assumed) passed her Harrowing. She was no longer standing in the shadow of the door frame as it was but now in the middle of a very large, very well lit, open space. She, however was not the problem the templars had to deal with at hand.

It was a bloodbath. The abomination was slaughtering templars left and right. One of the non-helmeted templars noticed me straight away and ran towards me. He stopped in front of me with a disapproving glare and turned his back to me going into a defensive stance. The abomination, demon? She could no longer tell. She saw terror and that's it. However the, whatever, saw one defensive templar among a room filled with offensive templars and attacked. And just- just like that the templar in front of her was dead. She couldn't move. She couldn't as his blood sprayed her body and face. She could feel the warm speckles that decorated her exposed flesh. She could barely comprehend what she was seeing, the man bleeding out in front of her. What felt like an eternity she looked from the dead man to be startled by brown-gold eyes inches from mine and not the face of the monster like she had feared. When did she get on the floor? When did he get so close, on one knee and his hand on her shoulder? How could she not feel that? How could she not feel anything? Startled out of her thoughts as she heard an angry roar.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU HAVE BROKEN A MANDATORY RULE OF THE CIRCLE. A RULE FOR THOSE OF YOUR AGE. OF ANY AGE AT COULD YO-"

"GREAGOIR! Now is not the time to be lecturing here. Look the child she is barely even here!" Irving was proving his point by looking into Sierra's eyes but seeing nothing. She looked down for she didn't want anyone to look at her, especially Irving. She felt so ashamed. But seeing that monster, it made her soul... feel corrupt, dirty, and unholy even. She scrunched her nose and eyebrows to form a look between guilt and disgust.

"I-I really sorry. I-" she paused to wipe the man's blood from her face and struggled on. "I perfected that really hard spell and I really wanted to show you so I ran to your office but you weren't there. So I-" she paused again but this time to wipe the tears forming in her eyes. "So I went up until I found... you." She was biting her lip so hard as to not cry but in the end it was a fruitless effort. Tears ran silently down her face as she stared at the floor for now everyone was gathered around.

Greagoir sighed obviously frustrated with the situation. "What are we going to do with you girl?" He rubbed his eye and let his hand slide down his face. "Perhaps Irving, you and I should speak in private? He turned to Irving who was now trying to get Sierra to look at him. He too sighed and stood from his kneeling position.

"Yes perhaps that would be for the best. Could one of your men take her down to the bathing chamber and then to bed?" She guessed that Greagoir only said yes was because she looked so pitiful and at the pleading in Irving's voice.

"Alistair, would you take the girl?" Greagoir glanced down at the kneeling templar who was unknowingly gripping her hand. He nodded and shuffled her out of the room and guided her down the stairs.

A/N:

Haha I finally worked up the courage to put this up. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have anything to say (critiques would be appreciated though) please do!

Edit: So yes I don't know if you all like the new setup but here it is!