-Just a quick note-

Thank you to all of my readers! I really appreciate all of you that added this fic to your watch lists. I really means a lot to me. *hugs for all of you*

I just wanted to give a shout out to VoiDreamer. Thank you so much for your encouraging feedback. It really inspired me with this chapter. So in that spirit I just wanted to say, "This one is on me."

-Amaris-

The Free Marches: wild and its cities separated by hundreds of miles. There was no unification, no one ruler. It had been perfect. I had spent the last five years in nearly complete solitude, save the one time I had ventured to take up sailing. That had been a mistake, I should have heeded my father's warning that elves were not meant to ride the sea. It had taken three days before I could walk straight again, and a week before I could bare to look at food. Thankfully the captain's wife, an elf from Antivan, had felt pity on me and taken me in while I recovered. I had never stepped foot in a boat again, not even to fish.

The Marches had been kind to me, providing me with what I needed. I had found good trade in the hides of a certain bear kin that lived only in the farthest recesses of the Marches. Trade with the cities vendors went well every six weeks and I had wanted for little in my time here. To say I had forgotten my life as a Grey Warden would have been lie. I had simply buried it, fooled myself into believing he had found someone new. I had even fancied him with children, he had wanted children…hadn't he? My stomach sunk at the realization that I could not remember anymore.

I scowled into the bottom of my mug. It had been filled to the brim with ale a few moments ago. I could have one more, but that one more would probably see me waking up on the tavern floor in the morning. I winced, maybe tomorrow night. Setting the sadly empty mug aside I threw several silver pieces onto the bar and shuffled my way out of the tavern. Ale had been my escape from my dreams and every night in the wilds of the marches saw me drinking myself into a stupor. I had discovered its effect by accident when a very forward dwarf and insisted on buying me a mug of Dragon's Breath. My head would be pounding in the morning. I stumbled up to my room above the tavern, and bared myself inside. No sooner had I turned from the door than my bow was drawn and aimed squarely at an intruder's chest.

"So this is how the Savior of Ferelden shall end her days? Drowned in one mug of ale to many?" The voice was coy and edgy; uncomfortably familiar. "Oh do stop pointing that dreaded thing at me. We both know you will not shoot."

Cautiously I lowered my weapon, as the stranger fed the fire. In the growing light my intruder's identity became all too evident.

"Stop staring like a confused cow, the look does not become you." She chastised.

"Mor…rigan?" I slurred. "What…what are you doing here?"

"Returning a favor, someone wishes to speak to you. " Morrigan replied, the smallest of smiles playing at her lips.

"I do not wish to speak to anyone." I snapped throwing myself into a chair by the fire. "There is a reason I live alone, in the middle of nowhere."

Morrigan's face looked questioning but she did not reply. She sat by the hearth and starred of into the fire. I had to admit that her visit was not completely unwelcomed. I had made myself believe that she, like all of my other companions, was gone forever. She had changed very little. Her face was still perfect like that of an Orlesian noble woman, yet there was something in her eyes. The spitfire apostate that I had known had been changed somehow. The woman sitting before me now was not the Morrigan I had befriended so long ago in the Korcari Wilds. She had been one of the few humans I had trusted and she had always upheld her part of the friendship.

"This favor will be completed whether you comply willingly or not." Morrigan announced. "Though it will be much less complicated if you comply."

"I could just shoot you, you know." I bantered. "Why send you if you were not the one that wished to speak to me? Could this person not make the journey to find me for themselves?"

"They cannot travel within this world; they can only speak with you within the Fade." She replied. "And seeing as how you have so wonderfully devised a way of keeping yourself out of the Fade, my presence was required. Now shall we do this the easy way, or shall you continue on your path of being complicated?"

My muscles tensed. What or who could possibly wish to speak to me within the Fade? There was a reason I had kept myself out. A reason I had not allowed myself to dream. My mind buzzed with the possibilities. None of them someone I wished to face again. However, Morrigan did not break promises. I would be entering the Fade tonight one way or another.

"You don't give me much choice." I muttered.

"See 'twas that hard?" She smiled, pulling a vile from the folds of her robe and handing it to me. "Now drink this, you'll feel a bit of discomfort as it burns off the remainder of the ale in your body. But it should knock you out before your blood completely sets aflame."

"Fantastic." I cheered, knocking the horrid smelling liquid back. Immediately I felt my throat burn as though the arch-demon its self were breathing into me. The pain was nearly unbearable. Every part of me was on fire. I wanted to cry out but no voice could escape my lips. I remembered falling from the chair and grasping at my throat. I could not breath, I could not focus on Morrigan in front of me. My mind began to numb and my vision blur. Perhaps Morrigan had finally betrayed me after all. I almost smiled. No not betrayed…released. I would finally be free of the pain.I vaguely remember Morrigan's voice piercing through my thoughts like an arrow.

"Not just yet my friend. You shall not die today."

And then there was nothing. No pain, no joy, no memory. I simply existed here, and I had no curiosity to wonder where here was. I registered no light around me or dark. It was simple nothingness; eternal sleep.

"Open your eyes dear. You're going to fall flat on your face if you keep walking around with your eyes squeezed shut!"

The sudden realization I was not alone startled me and I blinked. I was standing in an open field of tall grass. To say I did not miss the Fade would be a lie, but the pain it brought with it had been enough to keep me from it. The field belonged to my uncle Leelon. He had lived in the far reaches of Antiva many years prior. Leelon's master had died with no heirs or family and given his farm to Leelon. My family and I had lived there for several years with him, until a jealous Antivan Lord had my uncle assassinated my parents and I barely escaping across the sea to Ferelden. But what was I doing here of all places? I shook my head, and looked around. Not far from where I stood a figure peered at me beneath the branches of a large tree. I recognized her immediately, and hurried forward.

"Wynne!" I greeted coming to a clumsy stop before her.

"Still going at things much to fast I see." She teased steadying me. "I'm afraid there is not much time for pleasantries. The Maker will not allow me audience with you for long."

"The Mak…your…dead?" I felt my knees buckle.

"Yes, I have moved on Amaris. That is why I had to send Morrigan to you." Wynne answered. "We have watched you from afar long enough, it's time for change. I allowed you to leave because I saw the wisdom and selflessness in it. However I am afraid that Ferelden is in need of you once again. Or they will be soon enough."

"They have a General and wise Queen." I spat. "What use would a failed Grey Warden, an elf, for that matter be to them? And who is this we?"

"I would have hoped your pride in your race would be a little higher than that!" Another voice from behind me snapped. I spun on my heel poised to attack, and would have had Wynne not rooted my feet in place, literally. The new comer pulled back the hood of their cloak and my breath caught. This could not be possible.

"Just like your father, blaming your weakness on your race."

"Mo…Mother?" I breathed.

"Have you forgotten everything I ever taught you?" she continued. "I taught you to be strong, to take pride in yourself; to bow your head to no one."

"And we see where that got you. You left a heart broken husband and a shattered daughter in your wake." I replied indigently turning my back on her, one ghost was enough for tonight. "What do you want Wynne? What great self sacrifice does Ferelden need of me now? From what do I need to save it from?"

"It's self." Wynne sighed. "There is much unrest among the Banns and Arls. The Queen is losing her hold. I know you were never one for politics but they need someone to remind them. Remind them what united them five years ago. The evil is brewing again Amaris. Corbin will not be able to defeat them alone."

"Corbin?" I asked.

"Morrigan's son. He will be turning five shortly I believe. He has become aware of the darkspawn horde. He has seen a new blight arising much faster than the last and it will consume everything unless he can stop it. But he cannot do it alone. Morrigan's pride would not allow her to ask this of you, so I am asking. Please gather those that helped us in the last Blight. Help Corbin end the line of darkspawn once and for all."

The Blight, something I had not expected to occur again, in my life time anyway. I rubbed my face in frustration. I could not refuse the request, Morrigan needed me. I should have just had another mug of beer, passed out in the tavern, and I'd be sleeping peacefully without a care in the world. Now I had to return to Ferelden, I had to face everyone and everything I had been running from for five long years. I exhaled heavily. Andraste's holy knickers this was not going to be easy.

"This journey will be much more difficult for you than the last." My mother piped up. "I do not expect to understand your…feelings…for this human, but they are misplaced. Your people need you. You have a duty to defend them. Do not let your passed relationship with this Ali…"

"How dare you speak his name!" I screeched, striking her hard enough to send her reeling to the ground. "Do not speak of what you do not understand. I left him not the other way around mother. He had a country to defend and a Queen to protect, my presence was a distraction. Go back to your eternal rest mother, I see no reason why you came."

"You have made a decision then?" Wynne asked, pulling my attention away from my mother.

"I will do this." I answered, still glaring angrily at my mother as she struggled to get up. "I will do this, not to save Ferelden, but because I owe Morrigan a debut I can never repay."

"So be it."

I woke up in my room, above the tavern; Morrigan asleep by the fire. Beside her laid a small boy wrapped snuggly in a blanket. The resemblance of the two was astonishing. He had her every feature. I took comfort in that. It would make things easier. I shook my head rolling over to face the door, adjusting the dagger beneath my pillow. I would never talk myself out of having one more mug of ale, ever again.