Starting life in a new place is always a challenge. I had moved around my entire life to avoid the Templars, always without warning, never with a single goodbye from my "friends." I was thirteen years old when the Templars brought me to the Circle and had shown signs of magic since I was five. I don't remember much of my life before that. The day my magic changed my life is a day I can never forget, though. I was lost in the market and crying for my mother. No one was paying any attention, and there was a lot of noise. All of a sudden, everyone but my mother, who was just on the other side of the table, fell backwards. After that, my mother picked me up and we ran, the cries for the Templars dying in the distance. We have been running ever since, never staying in a village for more than a few months. It wasn't really my fault nor was it my mother's. I was a small child and she was a single parent. It was amazing that I wasn't captured before. Apparently, the Templars had been following the trail of a young apostate for many years, using descriptions of my mother and myself to find us.
My mother let out a low string of curses as they approached our shack. I had only heard my mother speak like that a few times in my short life and it made me more frightened than I already was. I felt my magic rising in me, which frightened me even more.
"By order of the Chantry, I order you to open up!"
Just minutes before, we had been eating a modest breakfast of day old bread and berries, laughing about the reading assignment she had given me the day before. I was always amazed at how beautiful she was. And envious. I always wished I could have inherited her beauty instead of my father's treacherous face. I hated how every time I looked in a looking glass, I saw the man that sent my mother and me into hiding. The man who would have killed his five year old daughter had we stayed for even a few minutes after the incident in the market. I hated him all the more for cursing me with his looks. My wavy, dark red hair, wide eyes and tall stature were all from him. All I saw of my mother was the color of my eyes. They are the color of grass after it rains. My mother was the opposite of me. She had long, straight golden hair, almond eyes and a petite frame. I could already tell I was not going to be thin like her. My breasts and hips had just begun to develop and they were nearly the size of hers'.
She looked at me and forced a smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling from eight years of living on the run. "I love you, Maggie. No matter what happens, never forget that. Now, I need you to hide in the cellar. Can you do that for me?"
"What about you? You should hide, too." I jumped from the sound of something hitting our door.
She shook her head and took me into her arms. "My love. You must trust me. Do not make a sound until you are sure the Templars are gone. Then you must pack up our gold, some food and leave. You are a beautiful, strong young woman." Tears filled her eyes.
"Open up, NOW!"
"Go, now! I love you so much." She kissed the top of my head and pushed me into the cellar, closing the door behind me.
I was shaking as I heard our front door open. "Yes?" my mother's sweet voice traveled to the cellar where I was hiding near a sack of carrots.
"Where is the apostate?" A man's voice growled.
"Apostate? There are no mages here, ser."
Then I heard the sound of metal swish through the air and my mother's sharp intake of breath. What was happening? I didn't think I could stand it.
"The punishment for harboring an apostate is death. If you present her to us, your punishment will be far less severe."
I couldn't let my mother die. It wasn't her fault I was born this way. I tried to come up with a plan, but nothing came to mind. I didn't know how to control my magic, yet and didn't want to hurt my mother on accident. As I was thinking up a plan, I heard a soft thump then footsteps close to the cellar door. I was frozen with terror. I knew they weren't my mother's. These were too heavy and they grated slightly against the wooden floor we had just put in. I couldn't breathe. I wished I could stop my heart from pounding, sure that the Templars could hear it. I tried to draw on my magic. The door opened and three Templars rushed towards me. The next thing I knew, two of the three were frozen. Literally. The third one sneered and hit me with something that caused me to become weak and fall over. The other two unfroze and I was put into shackles and led out of the cellar. I saw my mother lying on the floor and tried to run to her. I was hit with the same thing as before.
"Leave her be. You don't want your dear mother's house to accidently catch fire with her inside, do you? I thought not." He turned to one of the other Templars. "Have your fun with the mother. When you are finished, take her to the dungeons. We will bring the apostate to The Circle."
It was a long journey to The Circle; I lost track of how many days. I longed for my mother. I was given tiny rations of food that I washed down with tiny amounts of water. I didn't understand what was happening or where I was going. I don't even know if my mother really knew about The Circle. All she knew is there was a sort of prison for mages, and she tried to keep me out of it no matter the cost to her.
So, I cried out all of my tears, earning myself several slaps and smites. By the time we arrived at The Circle, I felt as though I was a giant bruise. All I wanted was my mother. The Knight-Commander was the kindest Templar I had ever met. The first thing I remember when we entered the tower is the look of disapproval at me captors. He looked at my bruises and said something about not abusing their duty to The Maker. By this point, I could hardly stand on my feet. I swayed and the Knight-Commander caught me, calling for someone to find a person named Wynne. Then everything went black.
