IGNIS AURUM PROBAT.
"fire tests gold."
I. SALVATION
Malcolm names his firstborn Asteria, 'of the sky', and swears that she will know only freedom. He names her for the fierce dragons of old and the nightingale that sometimes sings sweetly in the dark but could never be caged.
Asteria grows up tone-deaf as could be, but when she learns to cast fire he pats her on the head and calls her his little dragon for the next week.
The templars carry lanterns lit with charmed flames when they go hunting for apostates. The last time she sees her father, he shoves her into a bushes and tells her "Run!" with glints of gold highlighting his hair and eyes.
Terrified, she scrambles through the trees, ignoring the brambles that leave thin, bloody scratches across her arms and legs. Someone yells behind her, but it is not Malcolm, and Asteria does not dare look back.
In her dreams, Malcolm Hawke is just a shadowy figure outlined in light with eyes as bright as sovereigns. After three years, that is how she remembers him.
They say a Blight has come, the stuff of legends and myths, and that King Cailan and the Grey Wardens have gone to Ostagar to fight the darkspawn. Ostagar is not so far from home – when a regiment of soldiers passes through, Carver swings his greatsword over his shoulder and joins them. Their mother cries.
Bann Ceorlic leaves Lothering soon after, taking the soldiers with him. Word comes that Ostagar has fallen; the king is dead and all the Wardens with him. Quiet Bethany, usually secluded within their home, emerges to help mix healing potions for elder Miriam. Mother packs and frets and paces. Asteria takes Antiope to the gates of the Imperial Highway and waits for her stupid, Maker-damned younger brother.
If he doesn't come back, she will find his ghost in the Fade and punch it for good measure.
Carver comes at last. He is pale and sweaty, limbs shaking from the exertion of sprinting full-pace for days on end. "The darkspawn are coming," he pants, barely capable of holding onto his weapon. "We have to go, get Beth and Mother, we need to go now!"
They run.
Bethany leaps forward, eyes bright. Fire has always been her best element, and Asteria can feel the Fade shatter around her sister as she summons a scorching storm of meteorites upon the Tainted creatures that stagger forth, their skulls and bodies twisted in improbable proportions.
Then the ogre appears, and before Asteria can even move it grabs her sister and crushes her with a single hand. There is only one piercing scream that will join the gold-lit figure in her nightmares before Bethany's mangled body is tossed aside.
Leandra shrieks and Carver roars like a wounded lion at the loss of his twin, but Asteria goes white and silent before diving toward the monster. She forces a crescent of blade-sharp icicles to rise under it, freezing its legs and torso in place, and then leaves it open for their new friend Aveline to shatter.
Asteria sees her first (and hopefully last) dragon, diving to press herself down against the dry, packed dirt as the beast roars overhead. A wave of sheer, oppressive heat so thick she can barely breathe washes over them, and curling flames reach around the blackened skeletons of darkspawn.
The dragon turns into a woman –the Witch, Flemeth herself.
Asteria bargains.
Maker help her, it's a mad choice - but Bethany is so very, very still and Leandra's hands will not leave her broken body. It feels like nothing matters anymore.
She looks to Carver and tries to draw some sort of ridiculous courage from him. Maybe it works. The Witch of the Wilds laughs.
Flemeth leaves them in the forests on the edge of Gwaren.
Asteria leads their little group, wrinkling her nose at the scent of sulphur and ash that clings to her clothing. She glances back only once to see that Aveline and Mother are still with them, unwilling to linger on Leandra's face for long. Her mother's sharp, decisive, "This is all your fault!" still rings in her ears.
Carver walks next to her, lips stiff. Usually he would fill the silence, but for once he does not speak. Instead, he gazes at the humble fires built by refugees from all across the South, gathered and waiting for a ship to escape upon.
Asteria hears Bethany's scream against the crackle of the golden flames, and has to remind herself that fire – a dragon's fire, as well as her sister's - is what saved them at all.
This is the end of part I. They get progressively longer and part III is really almost deserving of its own separate story.
IAP covers the majority of DA2 and skims over a lot until Act 3, much of which will be or are covered by the other fics in this verse. (Check profile.) The events from this story are some of the most important in the verse, and helped me figure out Asteria, so I decided to place it first on the list despite chronological issues. Part II will be up shortly, thank you for reading.