Dragon Age: Dragon Age: Tragic Endings, New Beginnings

Chapter one: The Promise of The World (If you have ever seen Howl's moving castle, then you know this song)

And once again thank you to Eva and Janec for their betaing help!

The smile that trembles deep behind your tears
Is the promise of the world since the beginning of time

Even if I'm alone now, from our yesterdays
Today is born sparkling
Like the day when we first met

You're not in my memories
You turn into a breeze and touch my cheeks

Even after our parting in the afternoon with the sun beaming through the trees
The promise of the world won't ever end

Even if I'm alone now, tomorrow is limitless
You taught me about
The kindness that lurks in the night

You're not in my memories
So live forever in the song of the streams
In the color of this sky, in the fragrance of flowers

~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~

Sage had wanted to begin searching for Alistair the very moment her presence was no longer required by Anora, the queen and her assembly wanted the Warden to stay in Denerim to be shown off like some prized mabari. Eamon had left for Redcliff as soon as his estate in Denerim was secured. Any loyalty he'd held for Alistair no longer applied to her and she was left to fend off Anora's dogs without his assistance.

To her surprise, Zevran insisted on helping her search for him. It wasn't exactly a secret that there was no love lost between the assassin and Templar. Leliana's help was less of a surprise, she and Alistair had always had a close friendship because of their similar beliefs in the Maker. She had known Zane would follow her; he was her loyal war hound after all.

The group decided to start their search in the Port of Denerim. Alistair had left his pack and all his supplies when he'd stormed out of the Landsmeet and no one in Denerim was in a state to sell him any. With no food and little coin to his name, the Templar was most likely to have left by boat.

Sage sighed as she looked around the port, the sky was a lovely shade of blue but the clouds were beginning to grey. Turning to her friends she put on the best smile she could muster, "Alright, Leliana, I want to you go down to the Port Master and see if Alistair got on ship. If he did I want to know what ship and where it was going."

Leliana nodded. "Of course," the bard replied in a serious tone.

Sage then turned to Zevran, "Zev, I want you to go ..."

Zevran interrupted her, "To the brothel, yes?"

"The brothels? Why?" the Warden gave the elf a suspicious look. "Alistair would never go there on his own. We don't have time for distractions, Zev."

"Ah yes but people tell brothel workers secrets they normally would not tell anyone else, do they not? " At the woman's confused look he continued, "They tend to have false sense of security, thinking they are safe there just because they are paying someone to have sex with them, and someone might have mentioned something about Alistair yes?"

"How do you know this?"

Zevran laughed, "I was raised in a whore house, my dear.I know many things most men do not." The elf smiled suggestively.

Sage scoffed, "Fine but you're taking Zane with you."

"And why am I to go with your mabari, my Warden?" He eyed the woman in front of him then smirked, "Is it that you want to make sure I am protected in the event I happen to be mobbed by the seductive women because of my striking good looks? Ah, my fiery little minx, it warms my heart to know you are concerned over my wellbeing!"

Sage shook her head and shot Zevran a disappointed glance. "No, I want Zane to go with you so you don't waste time and money on the women."

Zevran placed his hands over his heart and gave her an overly hurt look, "Oh my friend, you wound me so."

The Warden rolled her eyes at the elf's antics and turned around, "Just don't forget why you're there," she sighed and turned away from the group, "I'm heading to the taverns, we'll meet back here later tonight."

The group split up, each of them taking different directions.

~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~

Sage groaned, it was already close to dusk and still she hadn't found anything. Sighing, she made her way towards the last tavern in the area. Hopefully this place would have more to offer than the others. Before entering the taverns she gave the sky a quick look, it was going to rain soon and, judging by how dark the clouds were, it was going to rain hard. Great, she thought to herself, just what we need, a rain storm.

The young noble secured her cloak tightly around her and pushed open the tavern doors. Sage was automatically greeted by the revolting stench of unwashed bodies, urine and alcohol. She cringed in disgust as she walked over to the bar. Taking a seat Sage ordered a glass of water, shifting around the stool until it was tolerable and she was able to finally look around Sage sipped from her glass. There were several men seated at one of the tables playing cards while others just sat at different booths drowning their sorrows in alcohol. Who would be the best to go to for information? Each one of these men seemed too drunk to even form a proper sentence, much less be able to tell her if they had seen man by Alistair's description come through here. She sighed, What if there was no hope in finding him? Hopefully Leliana and Zevran were having better luck than her.

The Warden took another sip from her glass. Right as she was about to ask the bartender if seen a man with Alistair's descriptions he placed a glass of dark wine in front of her. Sage blinked at drink then turned to the man. "I didn't order a drink…" she trailed off in confusion.

The bartender didn't answer her, he just pointed to her right where a man was seated. He had dark medium length hair that looked rather greasy. The man raised his glass to her. "A drink for the Savior of Ferelden," he cheered giving her a smile.

Sage shuttered, just his smile alone set a few unsettling shivers down her spine. She offered a smile back at him, he seemed sober enough to talk to, maybe he could offer her the information she was looking for. Standing up she made her way over to him and sat down, "Thank you for the drink," she said forcing a smile.

The man smiled back at her, "And what is our young hero doing in the harbor, catching a ship perhaps?"

Sage shook her head, "I'm looking for someone. He was very dear to me and he left. Now I'm trying to track him down."

The man chuckled. "He was a Grey Warden as well, I presume?" he took a long swing of his drink before he continued on. "I think I saw him just the other day. Big fella with short blondish hair?"

Sage smiled, truly smiled, Maybe all hope wasn't lost after all. "Yes, that sounds like him!" she nodded eagerly, "Do you know where he went?"The man nodded his head. Ever so slowly he leaned towards her, placing her arm near her drink and whispered, "I think I do but I'm not positive." The man looked around them suspiciously. Sage raised an eyebrow, maybe this man wasn't as sober as she thought he was.

"I don't understand," she answered him with a frown, looking down at her glass but seeing nothing unusual about it.

"It's all a bit foggy," he answered with a slight smirk. He leaned back, making a strange hand gesture before pointed at his head with the hand that had been near her drink, "My memory could use a bit of jogging, if you understand me."

The man lowered his hand, but his fingers continued to make strange motions. Despite the fact that she noticed the motions and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew they were important and to pay attention to them, Sage suddenly found herself unable to care about the motions enough to even try to decipher them.

Her fingers wrapped around the glass of wine, seemingly of their own volition, and despite the fact that her mind seemed to scream at her that she shouldn't drink the alcohol, her hand raised the glass to her lips and she took a long pull of the dark red liquid.

Sage frowned down at the glass… It tasted funny. She looked back up at the man, who was once again smiling at her. Things suddenly started to become fuzzy and it felt like everything was slowing down. The young woman felt herself starting to tip over chair, only to be caught by the strange man that she had been speaking with.

"Whoa there, hero. I think maybe you had too much to drink," even though Sage's mind felt fuzzy she caught the change in his tone. What had been a light, cheerful tone was now scornful. His lips pulled back in a hateful sneer. "Oh, don't worry, pet," he leaned down to whisper against her flesh, his breath tickling her ear. "I'll take real good care of you."

Sage panicked when she felt all of her limbs starting to go numb. She opened her mouth to scream but her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton and all that came out was a muted groan. She was helpless! Looking up, she could only stare into those deranged eyes. What was he going to do with her now?

She felt the man lift her up and then Sage knew nothing but darkness.

~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~

Zevran sighed as he and Zane walked through the streets of the port. The day had been a waste of time, he hadn't found out anything useful.

He looked up at the dark sky when he felt a rain drop hit his nose. He shook his head, not believing his rotten luck and hoping the storm wouldn't mess his hair up too badly. He glanced down at Zane, the mabari had his ears flat against his head.

"What, you don't like the rain?" Zevran questioned. In response Zane whimpered and dropped his head miserably. Zevran chuckled at the war dog, "And here I thought only felines hated the rain. I must have been mistaken, no?"

He laughed nervously and raised his hands when the dog growled up at him, "I am jesting, my fine furry friend!" The dog hesitated for a moment then turned his attention back to the road. Zevran shook his head and continued to walk down the path that was now beginning to fill with puddles as the rain came down harder.

As he walked, the elf noticed many of the shops had begun to close their doors and douse their lights, obviously getting ready to close for the evening. Most of the homes he noticed were dark and shut up tight for the night as well. The elf couldn't help but wonder if the search would be over after he met up with his friends… If Sage will have managed to catch Alistair before he left and explain herself. He almost wished she'd catch him, for her sake more than anything. She'd run herself ragged chasing him, even if she found no clue of which direction to go, the assassin knew she wouldn't give up that easily.

A stubborn woman, she.

Zevran pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he continued to trudge through the now pouring rain. Why was Sage so set on finding Alistair? The Templar had left her, had broken her heart. Why would she go back to him? He would only hurt her again. The human was a selfish man and Zevran didn't understand Sage's dedication to him. When he'd asked Leliana to explain it, she'd just told him, Sage loves Alistair deeply.

But what did love have to do with anything? If Zevran was in Sage's place he would have just moved on. Forget and move on, at least that's what he told himself he would do.

The elf shook his head and looked down at Zane who, even though he was soaking wet, was wagging his tail happily and looking straightforward. The assassin followed the war hound's line of sight and saw Leliana standing at the end of road. The bard was smiling and patting her lap in signal for Zane to run over. The mabari barked happily and galloped towards her, greeting her with a big slobbery kiss.

Zevran smiled and walked over to the two, "My lovely bard, have you found anything out about our missing Templar?"

Leliana sighed, standing up and wiping her face from Zane kisses, "I'm afraid I have not. I had to convince the Port Master to say anything and even then it was just to say that he hadn't seen anyone matching Alistair's description, how about you?"

Zevran shook his head, "It would seem that the brothel workers in this town do not open their mouth for anything unless coin is involved."

Leliana laughed and crossed her arms, "I wonder if Sage had better luck then we did." She looked around expecting to see their impulsive friend but frowned at finding the streets empty. "By the way, where is Sage?"

Zevran raised an eyebrow, "You haven't heard from her? Maybe she has found some information and is chasing the lead?" He placed a hand under his chin and sighed, "It's late, maybe she had already came here and went back to the inn."

"…Maybe…" The bard didn't sound convinced, "That doesn't sound like Sage though, she wouldn't have just gone back without us…"

Zevran sighed and made a gesture with his hands, "I will go look for her. In the meanwhile, take our furry friend back to the inn and dry him off. He doesn't like the rain very much. Try and get some rest, no sense in both of us going off to search for her at this time of night and in this weather you'll catch a cold, my dear."

"Why would I catch and cold over you Zevran?"

Zevran smirked. "Because, my Orlesian friendI am awesome!" He said in an arrogant tone and darted of before she could argue.

Leliana shook her head in response and motioned for Zane to follow her. The mabari hesitated between Leliana and Zevran as if trying to decide who to go with then whined pitifully. "Come on, Zane, you can't track her in this rain anyway," the bard said, urging the dog to come with her. The hound gave the direction Zevran had gone one last sorrowful look before following Leliana. Zane hesitated at first but obediently followed after Leliana.

Zevran turned to watch his two companions fade away into the darkness before resuming his search with a worried frown. It is most unlike our fair Warden to go missing…I hope she did not get drunk while we were separated, he thought. The taverns were not the best place for one with a broken heart to venture. Despite the fact that the Warden held a particular distaste for alcohol, the temptation of the solace it offered could prove to be too much for one so young and inexperienced.

Worry began to churn in the pit of his stomach and each step held a greater urgency than the last as he found no sign of the young Warden.

~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~~0.0~