A/N: Come on people, review! It only takes like five seconds to say if you hate it or you like it. Anyways, here's the next chapter. I'm about to be going into the Blight, and all chapters from here on will be either during or after the Blight. Some things will be explained in flashbacks, or in another story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age. Bioware does, and they'd better make Dragon Age 3 a whole lot better than they did the 2nd installment.

Kael winced as he landed lightly on the forest floor. He had been tricked into having another demon- a Demon of Pride at that- implanted into him last night. Although he had succeeded in absorbing the ancient beast, it had taken a huge toll upon his body.

Oh, he could feel the raw power he had gained both physically and mentally, but his body was feeling very fragile at the moment. And when you're a highly skilled Dalish hunter the situation is very inconvenient. Particularly when you are required to aid your lethallan, who has a strange penchant for discovering shemlin lurking about. Somehow, Tamlen had discovered the only shemlin that were either stupid or brave enough to make a foray into known Dalish territory.

Stifling a groan, he swiftly slung his bow out and aimed an arrow at one of the shemlin. Kael rolled his eyes as the fool gave a pathetic sounding squeak. Honestly, weren't most humans reckless and idiotic? He'd half-expected the shemlin to call him a filthy knife-ear and try to attack him. To be honest, he would have preferred that situation. At least then he wouldn't have to listen to Tamlen's theatrics. Kael covered a sigh as his lethallan began his normal intimidation routine. He only half-listened, more concerned with keeping an eye on the shemlin. It wasn't until he saw Tamlen taking a carving with clearly defined Elvish inscriptions on it that he was drawn into the confrontation.

"Tamlen," he said sharply, glaring at the blonde elf, "I know far more about Elvish than you, my friend. Prepare to shoot the shemlin if they do anything stupid."

Tamlen nodded his assent, and momentarily lowered his bow as he handed the invaluable carving to the other elf. The shemlins' reaction was immediate. Each quickly tried to sprint away from the scene, although they were clearly having difficulty running through the forest's undergrowth. Kael quickly took the carving, and glared at each of the shemlin.

The humans looked stunned as roots erupted from the ground and entangled their legs. They were even more surprised when the roots began to drag them painfully back to the elves. Each of them was shaking in fear as they stared at the lead elf, whose eyes were glowing with an ethereal golden light.

"Now, now, little shemlen, why are you so eager to run. I have no desire to harm you unless you harm my clan. Life is a precious thing, after all, and unlike most I am not eager to destroy it."

Tamlen smirked. He had to admit, the glowing eyes were overdoing it a bit, but combined with the demonic voice his lethallan was absolutely terrifying. Although to him, who had seen the same routine many times, it was merely amusing. The Dalish watched on as his friend continued to terrify the shemlin.

He snorted, Kael might have thought his lethallan had a passion for theatrics, but it was nothing compared to Kael himself. After what seemed like forever, one of the filthy shemlin worked up the courage to say something.

"Filthy abomination! When we get the templars, you and your clan will be destroyed by the Chantry, and good riddance!"

Kael merely raised an eyebrow. After returning from his lessons with Asha'bellanar, very few people had dared to threaten him. He decided to worm the information out of the humans. His clan could benefit greatly from a trove of Elven artifacts, and Marethari might stop putting demons inside of him if he could prove himself. Although it might have been dangerous for him, Kael had seen the calculating shine in the Keeper's eyes as he awoke from his battle with the Pride Demon. The fact that his body would probably disintegrate from excess magic didn't concern her very much, naturally. Kael, however, valued his own personal safety enough to take any steps needed to avoid that fate.

"Humans, I do not have time for your foolishness. Your templars are no threat to me, and any attempt to assault my clan would end in an utter decimation of your Chantry. Please tell me where you found this artifact. If you do not, I will be forced to rip the information from your mind."

His eyes narrowed, although he was inwardly pleased at how well he could pull of his Asha'bellanar impression. As insane as the old woman could be, she was certainly menacing when she wanted to be. It was an invaluable trait when dealing with fools, as Kael had seen many times.

These humans were the perfect example of aforementioned fools, in fact. If they had looked past his act at all, they would see that he was completely bored. Luckily for the shemlin, however, they gave up the information rather quickly. After he learned all he needed to go, he gave Tamlen a signal that commanded him to kill the shemlin.

Although he meant what he said when he talked about killing them being a waste, the poor bastards knew far too much. Kael had no doubts that they would be running off to their Chantry as soon as they returned home, and that was simply something he could not allow. Although the elf was confident in his clan's ability to defend itself, he wanted as few casualties as possible. Unfortunately for the shemlin, however, these three would be those casualties.

He watched impassively as Tamlen fired an arrow straight through one of the shemlin's neck. The other two froze and turned around, just in time to see another arrow from Tamlen and an entropy spell from Kael fly towards them. One of the humans ducked, and narrowly dodged the arrow with a yelp. The other was not so lucky. Kael's spell hit dead on, and drained the man of his life. All that was left was a shriveled up husk. Kael gave a predatory grin as he felt energy from the fallen man flow through him.

Tamlen had immediately aimed another arrow and let it fly. The last shemlin felt an arrow pierce his heart, and then died.

Both Dalish strode over to the bodies.

"Say, lethallan, what are we going to do with these?" Kael replied with a grin. He flicked his wrist, and dragged Tamlen out of the way just as a fireball fell from the sky and burned everything around the bodies into a fine layer of ash.

"That was…effective. Perhaps we should kill filthy shemlin more often."

Kael sighed at his friend's attitude. Although he had no love for shemlin himself- aside from Morrigan and Asha'bellanar, of course- he didn't believe in actively hunting them. As strong as the Dalish were, the humans outnumbered them a thousand times over. Instead of arguing, Kael simply grabbed Tamlen and followed the shemlins' instructions.

Kael could feel the demonic taint in the cave as soon as they entered. There was something else he could feel as well. It wasn't demonic, although it felt a little like it, and felt oily. Like something that should never have existed. He repressed a shudder and moved on. There was no reason to warn Tamlen if he didn't even know what was causing the taint. Another thing was bothering him as well. The oily taint seemed to be connected to the Beyond, and he was able to hear whispers. As they advanced through the cave, the whispers became even more pronounced.

He remained paranoid, but continued on like normal as they swathed through the shriveled, burnt corpses of the giant spiders- courtesy of Kael's fireballs. The Dalish was so focused on the foreign taint that he completely forgot about the familiar demonic one. It was only when they arrived in a hall filled to the brim with corpses when he realized his mistake. The second the duo had entered, a massive spike of demonic power filled the room, and Kael could only shout for Tamlen to prepare himself before a dozen possessed skeletons charged at them.

Kael reached into his mana reserves and "yanked". A small smirk adorned his face as a wave of demonic fire burst from his hand. Even Tamlen looked slightly awed as the possessed skeletons were blasted into ash.

Both elves carefully treaded through the hall until they saw an ancient looking statue. Tamlen reached out to touch it, but Kael quickly stopped him.

"Tamlen," he hissed, ", we just fought possessed corpses! We need to be careful and not touching everything that looks shiny." Tamlen rolled his eyes, but nodded nonetheless. He watched in amusement as Kael started marveling over the statue, muttering under his breath about details and such.

"Not Fen'harel…Falon'Din, perhaps? The wings suggest that it is a Creator that travels…"

Tamlen began to search the piles of ash for any trinkets. While he was as fascinated with lore and history as any other Dalish, he could just get all the details from Kael later. He decided that he might as well be doing something useful. The blonde continued to search for anything interesting. All he found was a weakly enchanted amulet in an ash pile and a few elf-flight arrows. The Dalish stood up from the urn he had gathered the arrows from, and walked straight into a grinning Kael. Tamlen yelped, and would have fallen over were it not for Kael's quick reflexes.

The blonde elf scowled at Kael as the abomination snickered. An annoyed Tamlen went into the next chamber, where his jaw dropped in astonishment. Standing in front of him was an enchantingly beautiful mirror, seemingly untouched despite the tarnished surroundings. Tamlen began to walk forward, feeling an urgent need to touch it, to heed the beautiful song coming from it. As if in a trance, he stared at it, not even noticing the ripples that seemed to be spreading through the glass.

"So beautiful…" Tamlen muttered. Just as he reached to lay his hand on the beautiful mirror, he heard a rather irritating voice call out for him.

"Tamlen, what the in the name of the Creators are you doing? That damn thing is practically oozing…something."

The blonde ignored him. Something so beautiful could not possibly be dangerous. Kael was just being paranoid. He could hear the mirror calling for him, and he yearned to just touch it and feel the song flow through him. Tamlen stepped forward.

Kael was feeling a myriad of emotions. First was anger. His oldest friend was being a fool, and he feared there was nothing he could do to stop it. He didn't know any magic that could keep Tamlen from touching the mirror, which had a disgustingly oily aura that gave off an enchanting whisper to his magical-attuned senses.

Second was fear. He couldn't lose his best friend, the one constant in his life. Tamlen had been his best friend since they were da'len, and he refused to lose him to a bloody mirror, of all things.

Lastly was confusion. He had no idea what the oily corruption was, all he knew that it was far worse than any demonic taint. Demons could barely reach into this world. Even then, they could only taint and corrupt living things. Whatever was being emanating from this mirror, though, would taint the entire world if left unhindered.

Kael reached out his hand, and began to shoot out an arcane missile, in a last attempt to remove the damned mirror's influence from Tamlen. The elf could feel the power gathering in his hands, preparing to destroy the mirror. He could feel it beginning to release, the crackle of the pure mana music to his ears.

It fizzled out.

Kael didn't even have time to wonder what had happened when a wave of the oily taint washed over him. He wanted to scream out in rage and confusion. Why did this happen to him! Kael could feel the taint reaching into him, latching into his body. He could feel it as it slowly began to worm its way into his bones. It felt dirty as it infected him. For a moment he struggled, trying to throw off the taint.

He fell unconscious.

Every now and then, Kael flickered into consciousness, only to lose it a second later. Finally, he saw a dark-skinned shemlin standing over him with worried eyes. Kael tried to say something, but the only thing that came out of his dry mouth was a bestial snarl.

The shemlin's eyes widened and his lips began moving. Kael could tell he was saying something, he just couldn't figure it out.

Kael slipped back into unconsciousness.