"Seriously, this thing spoke to you?" the dwarven rogue, Varric, asked with pure curiosity as he studied the strange star gem in his hands. He held it up to the light that shone through the temple for a better look at it. The fragments in the gem reflected brilliant speckles of purple around the room where the sunshine hit it.

Alistair sighed. After what had happened down in the caverns, being unsuccessful in destroying the gem that was the prison of the entrapped soul of a woman by the name Kiinalyn, he had been at a loss of what to do. Feeling a mixture of guilt and pity on the soul within Alistair had decided to take the gem stone back up to the surface with him. He had a hell of a time explaining all that happened in the chamber below to his companions. "Yes, I'm positive."

"You sure?" Varric asked skeptically. "Cause I haven't heard a peep out of it all day."

It's true. Alistair hadn't heard a peep from the spirit all day as well. It had been hours since he had heard the spirit's outburst. "It spoke to me, Varric."

The pirate, Isabela, wandered over. "You sure you aren't coming down with a case of jungle fever, Alistair? Because that would explain everything, really." She snatched the gem out of Varric's hands to gander a look at the thing herself. "And if you did hallucinate the whole thing then maybe we can hock this thing off. It's got to be worth something surely. It does seem to be made out of some kind of crystal, after all. Could be rare for all we know. Maker, knows I can surely use the coin."

Alistair shot her a skeptical glare. "Even after the amount of gold I paid you to accompany me on this adventure?" Isabela was an old acquaintance of sort from back in the day. She was a pirate and a thief and considered herself to be the sharpest blade in Rivain. Alistair had hired her on for this task of his because she had better knowledge than he had of certain parts of the city of Antiva, where this quest first started. The dwarf, Varric Tethras, was Isabela's traveling companion who decided to tag along for the adventure. He would be lucky if there was a single sovereign in the treasury after all this.

"It is an odd piece though, isn't it?" Varric said. Pointing out the obvious, interrupting the two.

Alistair agreed with him. The craftsmanship of it was unlike anything he had seen before. "Have you ever seen anything like this before, Varric? You have come across a lot of unusual things, haven't you?"

Varric pondered for a moment. "Well, I got to admit its strangeness does remind me of that damn idol we found in the Deep Roads."

The Deep Roads was home to all kinds strangeness and mysteries. Alistair remembered Varric telling the tale of his and his brother's first expedition into the roads. It didn't turn out as he had expected. "The one that drove the Knight Commander of Kirkwall insane?" He remembered well of his first encounter with the woman, Meredith, when he had visited Kirkwall a few years ago. She wasn't exactly what he would call a charming woman at the time.

"Yep, that's the one," the dwarf snapped his fingers before regarding him with suspicion. "You haven't been hearing any voices in your head, have you?"

"Or had any crazy, blood-lust thoughts?" Isabela chimed in.

Alistair rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, I'm perfectly fine, thank you."

Varric shuffled closer to his pirate friend. "Maybe that stone is just getting him to tell us what we want to hear," he said all in good humor as he tried to hold back a snicker.

Why did he ask these two to come along again? "Can we please stop questioning my sanity for the moment. We do have bigger problems, after all."

"Ah, yes," Isabela said. "We need to get out of these blasted swamps, get back to the ship if they haven't already assumed that we're all dead yet, find the man that took your father and wait, hold on, there is something I'm forgetting. Oh, right...the over-sized bitch brute of a dragon that won't let us leave!" Pointing outside the temple entrance with great theatrics at the dragon queen that sat in the field before the structure. It was a strange thing. Alistair had assumed that after he had killed Yavana the dragon would simply leave on its own record and fly away. Instead it had chosen to sentinel itself almost as it were waiting for something. When Alistair had finally made his way out of the chamber downstairs he had been greeted by the rays of the rising sun that had just been starting to peek over the horizon outside of the temple. That and a dragon queen out on the front lawn. The sun was now hanging high in the afternoon sky showing how much time had passed since then.

"Well, at least it hasn't turned the temple to rubble," Varric sighed, looking on the bright side of things.

Isabela growled her frustrations. "You said this thing spoke to the dragon," waving the star gem before Alistair. "Why can't it do it again? The two of them can have a nice little chat about letting us be on our merry way."

Alistair sighed. He was frustrated too, but the workings of the gem were far beyond his understanding. "It's not as if I know how this, whatever this thing is, works."

"What's to understand? You give it a shake, you give it a rap and go 'Hello?'" She rapped on the gem's central surface. "Anybody in there?! You're being a major inconvenience to us, you know." Isabela spoke down to the spirit within as she continued to shake the gem with all her might.

Alistair snatched her wrist. "Give it a rest, Isabela." He said, taking the star out of her possession. Last thing they needed right now, given their current situation, was to piss off a spirit that had, Maker knows, what kind of powers. For all they knew, if they ended up on this spirit's bad side, they could end up cursed. Or worse, thinking back to his conversation with the spirit down in the Hall of Sleepers, be served up to the dragon outside as bite sized snacks. "How would you feel if you found out you had to spend an eternity in a vessel?"

Isabela crossed her arms. "Well, I know the feeling better than you think, darling." She huffed. "Since we are, in fact, trapped in a temple guarded by a very hungry dragon with no possible way of escaping without one of us becoming dinner. At this rate, for all I know, we could be here for all eternity."

"We'll figure out something," he assured her. The dragon couldn't stay out there forever. Then again neither could they sit and wait in here forever. And it's not as if they journeyed into these swamps with packs brimming with supplies. But he had to hope for the best.

Isabela seemed unconvinced. "Maybe Varric can sweet talk this so- called spirit out."

Varric gave a hearty laugh. "Well, I suppose I have done stranger things. Just how does one charm a spirit out of its shell anyway?"

"Well, whatever it is you do, do it fast. I'm getting awfully sick of being cooped up in this blasted temple." She said before throwing a death glare in the dragon's direction. "This is why I hate the bloody overgrown lizards. They always seem to cause one problem after another."

An irritated voice spoke up. "You really have no idea just how important they are, do you?"

All eyes turned to the star gem in Alistair's hand. It's core was pulsing that eery purple light once more which Alistair was trying to decide on whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. But right now, all he knew was that he was relieved. Hearing the spirit's voice again gave him some hope that she might be willing to assist them in getting past the dragon. He knew she had the ability after hearing her speak to the beast hours earlier.

"What do you know, it does talk." Varric said surprised. "Guess you weren't so crazy after all there, huh, Alistair?"

Isabela didn't seem so impressed at seeing his previous words come true. If anything she was more irritated. "About time, I say. Were you just going to wait till we all starved to death before you said a damn word?"

"Funny," the spirit said in the same ton of voice. "You would think after a few hundred years of solitude I would be grateful to hear another's voice. Oh, how you have proved me wrong, pirate."

Isabella was taken aback. "And just how did you know I'm a pirate, you piece of junk?"

"Oh please, you're dressed like a scavenger on the docks of Riften. Even the Forsworn wear more cloth than you." Again Alistair was hearing this spirit using names of places and, what he assumed were, people that he had never heard of before. He wondered if her saying 'a few hundred years' was her being sarcastic or her being truthful.

"You know, for a disembodied spirit, you have quite a stick up your arse." Isabela said as she glared at the gem with disdain. "Tell me, is it because you're stuck in a rock or is it that you have always been naturally cranky?"

The irritation in Kiinalyn's voice was rapidly growing stronger. Isabela sure had a talent for pissing people, even spirits, off. "It is more so hearing your constant whining all day. I've known people who have had their homes burned to the ground, hell, even a man who lost both his legs who didn't bellyache as much as you."

Now that comment really got under the pirate's skin. "Listen here you little—!"

"Now, now, Rivani." Varric stepped in. "Let us all settle down before someone gets hurt. Here let me-" he gestured to Alistair to hand him the relic. Once the item was in the dwarf's possession he cleared his voice and proceeded. "Forgive my friend here old wise and powerful spirit. Isabela has just been a little on edge lately."

"Hmmm 'old wise and powerful spirit' huh?" Kiinalyn chuckled lightly. Her voice instantly turning into a more pleasant and friendly tone. Alistair really did have to hand it to Varric. The dwarf did have a way with charming people. Even ghosts. "Well, isn't that the best one line opener for a kiss assing speech I have ever heard."

Varric gave a chuckle of his own. "Heard that line before, have you?"

"Some along the same lines, yes. Of course none performed in such a charming masculine voice."

The dwarf seemed to enjoy the touch of playfulness he heard in her tone. Alistair was surprised. It was so different for him to hear that tone after the soul crushing one he had heard her speak earlier down in the Hall of Sleepers. "Now, I would be the one lying saying I haven't heard that line before."

The spirit's voice changed to a more thoughtful tone. "I find myself curious as to whom I now find myself speaking to."

"Varric Tethras, merchant and legendary famed storyteller, not to brag or anything." He introduced himself as he flashed his best smile. Out of the corner of his eye Alistair could see Isabela rolling her eyes at the exchange they were witnessing before them. "I hope you are a lot nicer than some of the other spirits I've met."

"A pleasure to meet you, Varric. I am Kiinalyn Stormblazer. Prisoner of the star of Azura." Varric's eye lit up with interest. "Oh, I know I smell one hell of a story here."

"Ask the right questions and you might get to hear the story of your life." Varric grinned. "Now I like the sound of that."

"But I don't just tell my stories to just anyone you know."

"I'm sure we can work out an arrangement we would both be happy with. After all, the trade of tales just happens to be one of my specialties."

Isabela rolled her eyes again. "Would you, please, stop flirting with the damn relic already, you damn dwarf."

The pirate distracted the dwarf briefly from the spirit. "Hey, I'm a natural charmer. I can't help it."

"More like shameless flirt." Isabela countered.

"Look who's talking."

"Wait! Hold on here!" Kiinalyn interrupted distracting them both from their little argument. "You're a dwarf?" she asked in complete awe and genuine curiosity.

Varric studied the gem. "Yes. What? You sound like you've never seen a dwarf before."

"I haven't," she confessed.

"What?" Alistair asked. He couldn't believe his ears. How was it that anyone, even an old spirit, had never seen a dwarf? She must have led a very isolated life during the time when she was alive.

"Dwarves haven't been seen in hundreds of years," she explained as though it were common knowledge. "They disappeared long before my time. I can't believe it." She said with awe. "Times certainly have changed. Just where exactly am I?"

"In the Tellari swamps in Antiva." Alistair answered.

"I see… " Kiinalyn grew quiet for a moment before she spoke with a fire in her voice. "I want to make a deal with you. An arrangement if you will. I believe we can both be of help to one another."

"Just what kind of deal are we talking about?" Isabela asked suspiciously.

"I want to hear about everything, any knowledge that you have to spare. And I mean everything. The land, the people, its history. Everything. And in return I'll help you anyway I can with the dragon and I might just be able to give you some of the answers you are looking for, Alistair."

Alistair found that creeping sense of curiosity he felt back in the caverns return. "Such as?"

"I heard what Yavana said before you killed her. About how your heart beats with the blood of old. You want to know what that truly means, don't you? Why your blood has such power? How your bloodline descended from a time when dragons ruled the skies? A time before the Veil, of the Fade itself? You wish to know the truth of these answers, don't you?"

Alistair was hooked and he and the spirit both knew it. "You're saying you know of such things?"

"I'm saying more than that. I'm telling you that I lived them. I was not alive at the time when the world was new and the dragons ruled over man and mer, but I did live before the magic changed. Before the Veil and the Fade. I lived in a time before the darkspawn terrorized the lands."

Before the darkspawn? Just where exactly in history was this spirit born into? To live in a time without the tainted creatures, without having to worry about the Veil and the Fade. What must have all of that been like? His curiosity was sure getting the better of him and that was dangerous.

"Just how old are you exactly?" he asked.

Kiinalyn sighed. "For me time is endless in the gem. I am not certain how long I have been contained in here, but I think it's safe to say a few hundred years or so. Maybe even longer. All I know for certain is that this land is not the land I had grown up to know. Far from the days of old Skyrim."

Alistair thought for a moment as he recalled all the history he had learned from the Chantry and from the Grey Wardens themselves. Never once in all the texts he read or the teachings he was taught did the name Skyrim come up. But his knowledge of other events did help him with one thing.

"If you came from a time before the darkspawn then you must have lived before the first Blight. And that was over eight hundred years ago."

"So I'm guessing around a thousand years, give or take?" Varric hazard a guess. It did seem like a fair one. Since no one knew of a time when the Veil or the Fade didn't existed.

"Has it only been that long?" Kiinalyn said tiredly. "Feels like an eternity has come and gone for me."

Alistair felt himself getting excited. Finally someone who might finally supply him more answers than questions. "So you could tell me everything? About my blood? About the times of the Ancients? Anything?"

Kiinalyn hesitated for a moment. "I don't know if I'll be able to tell you all about your blood, but perhaps my knowledge will help you get one step closer to finding the truth. I don't hold all the knowledge of my time, but I do know a great deal of it. I was a scholar and adventurer when I was alive. If you ask, I will tell you what you wish to know if I am able. As the saying goes-knowledge is power and that is something I hold a great deal of. Just, please, don't make me stay here for another thousand years." She pleaded.

Alistair smiled. "I'm sure we can work it all out."