Introduction
The story takes place 25 years after the fall of the Archdemon. After taking Morrigan's dark offer, Alistair married his fellow Grey Warden, Elissa Cousland, and was crowned King of Ferelden. After many difficult years of trying and miscarriages, they were finally able to bear a daughter named Lyana. The darkspawn threat has all but disappeared, and even Morrigan has not been heard from in some time. However, her child has no doubt grown up, and fate is about to invade all of their lives once again.
Chapter 1: Strange Dreams
Hide and seek again, I see.
Lyana narrowed her eyes as she peered through the dense, wintry forest. An unsettling quiet enveloped the land with a fog as thick as the snow beneath her boots. A brief gust of wind whistled past, sending a chill up her spine as she pulled a tattered cloak more tightly around her. Though no creature stirred, she knew that she was not alone. She could feel him. Feel his breath, his pulsing heart, his eyes drinking her in as she stood frozen amidst the trees. She was jealous that he was able to watch her so, when she struggled to catch the barest glimpse of him. But then again, she had wandered into his forest.
Who he was, Lyana did not know. As a child, she had sometimes fancied him as a guardian spirit from the Fade, for she had only known him in her dreams, and it was there that he was always watching her. But as she grew older, she realized that it was not from benevolence that he minded her presence, but from a mutual curiosity at this encroachment of his domain. Sometimes, she chased him through the forest, as if catching him would procure answers from this mysterious dream companion. But he always managed to elude her.
She closed her eyes, and tried to track the sensation of his presence, a talent she had acquired over many years of visiting this strange dream world. It was almost as if she could join in with his consciousness if she tried hard enough. She wondered if he felt it too. Or if he – if all this – was nothing more than a construct of her mind or some particularly mischevious Fade spirit.
She turned her head to the left, where she could sense his beating heart pumping blood so hot through his veins that it warmed her too. Each breath inched her closer to his hiding place in the dense trees. Opening her eyes, she spotted bright golden orbs peering back at her from a shadow.
Their gaze held for a moment, each sizing the other up. In an instant though, he was gone, a flash of fur darting away from beside a rock. I've got to catch you one day, right? Lyana thought to herself, as she rushed after him in their familiar dance. The snow crunched clumsily under her boots, and the wind burned against her chapped cheeks, but she did not even notice.
He always seemed to be one step ahead of her, but neither could he lose her. She knew this part of the forest almost as well as he now, and she fleetingly sensed his presence as they ran through the woods. But today, he was not leading her in the usual neverending circles until dawn shattered their dream. Today he was taking her deeper into the woods, where the dead branches caught in her hair and slowed her down. Ahead, thick bushes rattled as something darted through them, and she followed.
She struggled through the dense underbrush, finally having to abandon her cloak as it became hopelessly entangled. By the time she emerged to the other side, she knew that the stranger would have evaded her once again. With a final stumbling step, she pushed through to a clearing, and the unexpected took her breath away.
Ahead of her lay a dilapidated ruin, stone columns jutting awkwardly out of the frozen landscape. Half destroyed statues lined what must have once been a grand entranceway, and Lyana's eyes darted around, looking for clues that would help her look up this place in the palace library later. Perhaps she would gain some validity to her dreams instead of constantly worrying if she was mad.
As she placed her first step onto the broken stone walkway, Lyana's stomach tightened into a hard knot. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. She could not shake the feeling that there was danger here. No, more than danger. Evil. She wondered if there was a Fade demon here. Although she was no mage, the tales of a spirit possessing your body from your dreams were not ones she took lightly. Nevertheless, as nothing immediately appeared, curiosity overcame her fear and she gingerly stepped further into the ruins.
Staying close to the walls, Lyana ran her hand along the cold, smooth stones, her fingers occasionally tracing over strange writings carved into it. If she could find her way back here in another dream, perhaps she could work on setting the unfamiliar words to memory. As she contemplated this, a faint whispering ahead drew her attention.
"Hello?" she quietly called. There was no response, save for the same low whispering that seemed unaware of her presence. She followed the source of the sound deeper into the ruins. A great wooden doorway loomed ahead. The danger seemed easy to ignore as she anticipated finally being able to speak with her mysterious dream watcher. As she approached the door, the voices grew somewhat louder, audible now, though chanting and muttering in a language she did not understand. And there were many of them; if he was there, he was not alone.
She approached the door and placed her ear along the splintered wood, trying to hear what the voices were saying. It seemed they were inside the ruins, though not immediately next the door. Steeling her courage, Lyana took a deep breath and slowly cracked open the door. She winced when it creaked, but the tenor of the voices did not change and she assumed they did not hear her.
Peeking inside the door revealed a long stone corridor, with no one in sight. At the end of the hallway, a faint glow emanated from around the corner. Though her sense of danger was almost overwhelming now, Lyana dared to step foot inside.
Almost instantly, the voices reached a loud and frantic volume, filling the air around her even as they seemed to rumble up out of the earth. Their chants became nauseating, and though she wanted to run, she suddenly found herself weakly falling to her knees. An intense pressure filled her mind, until her brain felt it had swelled so much that it would explode. Lyana clutched desperately at her head, fighting to stay conscious.
Footsteps in the stone hall distracted her for a moment. She half expected to see a demon hungrily making its way towards her, but when she glanced up, it was only a woman. Although with her dark hair flowing wildly to her shoulders, dressed in skins and leathers from any numberof animals, Lyana wasn't sure she was in much better shape.
The woman approached her and merely stood there, folding her arms and staring down at Lyana as if she was a strange marvel. Lyana tried to cry for help, but all that emerged was a whimper and eyes that brimmed with tears. The woman pursed her lips and started to turn away. Lyana groaned as the pain in her head became nearly too much to bear.
Suddenly the woman turned back around as if recalling a faint memory, and used her walking stick to force Lyana's head up towards her. The woman's strangely yellow eyes peered inquisitively into hers, and for a moment, Lyana wondered if she could be him. But before she could follow that thought, the woman sighed in resignation, and lifted Lyana from the ground.
"I will regret this," the woman muttered, placing her hand on Lyana's forehead. A swirling haze filled Lyana's vision, lulling her to a sleep she was too weak to fight. Perhaps this is a demon after all, she thought as her heavy eyes closed and the cacophany of voices slowly receded into a quiet, dark void.
