Chapter 4

That night, they feast on nug and finish however much water they have left. Aedan assured them the tower they're heading towards has a never-ending supply. The next morning, they wake to the wrath of Ferelden's fierce sun, and leave minutes after dawn towards the tower Kye had seen earlier the day before. Apparently, the weather had gone considerably worse after she first woke yesterday. The winds were, in fact, only passing breezes. Now the air is hot, and no wind compensates for it.

When Kye asks Aedan exactly where they are, he admits to lying to her before, and confesses that they are, in truth, at the Western Approach. An area of desolate sand and nothingness far west of Ferelden.

"Why'd you lie?" Kye asks.

"I had to know if you were familiar with Thedas." Aedan responds. "Judging from your expression when I lied, you know the terrain fairly well."

Kye takes a breath of a hot air, coughs, and shakes her head. "Amaranthine is not a desert. That much, I know."

"Fair enough."

They walk for hours on end. To Kye, the tower seems to only shrink the closer they get to it. She hardly believes they'll manage to reach it before dusk closes in. But Aedan reassures them that they will. The length is only an illusion.

Kye reaches up to wipe the sweat from her face. She silently thanks God – or the Maker, considering they're in Thedas – for somehow supplying a scrunchie over her wrist upon her awakening the day before. She had tied her hair up yesterday when they began traveling with Aedan. She's sure that if she hadn't, she'd already have melted.

Approximately an hour later, Kye's strength falters, and she drops to one knee with a loud cry. Aedan whirls around just in time to catch Evelyn kneel down beside her in worry.

"Kye!" Evelyn tries to examine her face. "Are you okay?! What happened?!"

Kye laughs, shaking her head, but she can't find the energy in her to respond.

Aedan looks up at the sun. "Must be the heat. How much did you have to drink yesterday?"

"Not enough," Kye manages to whisper. "Apparently."

"Idiot. There was a whole damn bottle and you didn't even drink enough!" Evelyn snaps.

Kye looks up at her, smirking, and taps her on the cheek with the back of her hand. "Was saving it up for your sake, darlin'."

Evelyn colors slightly, before pulling away in shock. Aedan looks over his shoulder at the tower still maybe an hour's walk away. With a heavy sigh, he turns back to her, and bends down.

"I don't know if you can continue—"

"I can."

Surprised, Aedan pauses. "But you—"

"I'm fine, Aedan." Kye says, attempting to get up. "Just a little— unused to the body is all."

Aedan asks, "What do you mean 'unused to the body'?"

"We've been aged almost five years into the future." Evelyn says. "We were sixteen when we left KK— ah, I mean, Earth."

"Sixteen." Aedan says, eyes widening. "You two are children."

Kye laughs. "Not anymore." She manages to steady herself with both legs.

"And you're sure you can make the journey?" Aedan asks worriedly, grazing over the hardened muscles on Kye's legs.

She exhales loudly, unwillingly leaning against Evelyn for support, and nods. "I'm not gonna be the one to slow you guys down. Keep walking, Aedan. I'll be right behind you."

"So will I!" Evelyn exclaims.

Aedan, though reluctant, nods. He turns around, and keeps walking.

An hour later, they arrive by the gates of the notorious tower. Kye feels the breath in her lungs leave her body at the sight of its majestically beautiful template. She's never seen anything quite so... ancient. From a distance, the tower only looked stoic and dull, muted with only its one window to brighten its dark exterior. Up close, however, Kye realizes she's failed to see the many little details of its intricate design littered all across its walls.

Evelyn's the first to comment on its beauty. "I've never seen anything like this."

Aedan turns to address them. "It was part of a larger construction at first. A section to a massive fortress. Unfortunately, circumstances caused the remaining structures to corrode and vanish. How this tower survived while its brethren crumbled, nobody will ever know." He gestures to the gates. "For now, we've claimed it as a Grey Warden post. Please, ladies first."

Evelyn, with an arm still wrapped around Kye's waist for support, helps Kye through the tall black gates and up the short stairs. Two Grey Warden soldiers stand ready by its entrance, saluting at the sight of their Commander approaching the doors. He tells them to open, and they hurriedly obey. Aedan then leads the two girls inside, over the marble ground and towards the lone wooden dining table situated at the very end of the chamber.

The cool feel of the tower's marble stones draw the exhaustion from their bodies, leaving them feeling light-headed and giddy.

"Finally." Evelyn exclaims, laughing and grinning like a madwoman.

Kye slips from her grasp, and falls to the ground. Suddenly, she finds herself feeling... strange. There's a knot in her stomach. A knot so twisted and animated she can almost feel it growing in her belly. She wonders what it might be, when a striking pain lashes out in her head like a needle as sharp as an arrow. It, at first, grows only past the edges of the sides of her brain, but quickly, the pain spreads – before she realizes it her whole head is wracking with this strange sensation.

She bends over, pressing both palms against her head desperately, screaming for the pain to stop as Aedan and Evelyn both kneel down over her agonized form, crying out words she can barely hear.

The pain —

Oh God, she can't take it!

It feels like a sword is being driven through her skull!

She cries out for help. She cries out for God. For the Maker. For anybody who could stop the pain — but nobody answers her desperate cries. In the end, she's left alone with her agony, withering away in torment, suffering against an enemy she cannot fight.

After what feels like hours, her strength washes away, and before she knows it,

Darkness once again overwhelms her.

She has a dream again.

Like the one before, it's situated in a gamer's world. Evelyn was in it again. This time, however, despite carrying a staff, she seemed docile. Harmless. She stood, with brown eyes bright with enthusiasm, next to somebody who looked eerily like Kye, with her hand wrapped tightly around her companion's.

Unlike the one before, however, somebody else stood in it. Somebody who Kye's been trying hard not to think of in the few months she's been away from her. Somebody who, in her dream, glows as radiant and as beautiful as she does in real life. Except unlike in real life, the dream version of her stands resolute, unwavering, against a pack of wolves, holding up another staff, dragon skull carved at the top, and throwing fireballs at each one as they pounced.

The dreams ends, when a pack of Ilyses bursts from the smokes left by the mage girl's flames, and attacks both Evelyn and Kye.

Kye wakes up with a jolt. It's the first time she's had a dream so vivid push her up into a sitting position upon an awakening. Her breathing, when she wakes, is ragged and rough. Surprisingly, she doesn't have her usual horrid morning breath. She isn't sure how long she's been out. But her body aches. Along with her head, and pretty much every other part of her with living cells in it. She looks around the room frantically, until her eyes land on the back of a mysterious man standing merely eight feet away from her.

Her heart stops.

"Who are you?!" She cries, throwing herself back against the wall beside her.

The man jumps, and turns. His white face, pale with fright, stares back at Kye in dread. He has pointed ears. He's an elf. Kye almost gives in to excitement at the very sight!

"M-My apologies, m'Lady!" He bows deeply, so deep his tousled hair nearly grazes the floor. From that angle, his petite, skinny stature is as obvious as his long, pointed ears. He straightens up, still white with fear. "Master Cousland has asked me to report your condition to him immediately should you wake! I-I must go now." With a last frightful look at Kye, he turns on his heel and dashes off, exiting through the tall door opposite her.

The room goes uncomfortably silent.

Sighing, Kye reaches up to touch her throbbing head. But her skin feels weird when she touches it – soft and strange and much like cloth. That's when she realizes her head has been bandaged. Panicking, she paws at it with both hands, probing into it by poking and attempting to find its end. Why the hell is her head bandaged?

Before she can answer her own question, the door opposite swings open, and in steps Aedan Cousland. Dressed in normal people clothing. Which makes Kye rather uncomfortable, considering his grey tunic hugs his body almost perfectly, revealing every muscle and every perfectly shaped ab. Kye may prefer the company of women, but that doesn't mean her attraction for men with remarkable bodies have lessened in the past few years.

Aedan's face breaks into a smile. "You're finally awake."

Kye swallows, before asking, "Finally?" She shakes her head. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Indeed." He approaches her with his deep aquamarine eyes trailing the length of her body. His gaze is so unintentionally intense, Kye wonders to herself whether or not he's aware of it. "We were worried after the fifth hour. Evelynia was— To put it lightly, she was starting to doubt."

Kye's chest constricts. "Oh yeah?" She asks in a small whisper. "So how long—"

"Two days." He says, smiling sadly, before gesturing to the window on the far side of the room. "I thought this room would best suit your recovery. It's the only room in the tower with a window in it. Normally, we use it for patrols. We can see almost the entire approach through its line of vision. But, of course, certain circumstances have caused a change of routine. Your recovery was our priority."

"But why?" Kye blurts, unaware that she had even asked it at first.

Aedan looks at her for a long time. "Because you're unlike the others, Kyedan Valdarynx. You are unlike Earthlings, and Thedasians, alike."

He bends down beside her bed and unwraps the bandages from her head. "When you started hurting, we assumed the heat had gone to your head. Either that or— Well, there was no other explanation except magic. Then you went unconscious. And— And then something strange happened that bothered me. Bothered us all, in fact."

"Strange, huh?" Kye chuckles spitefully. "I doubt anything would surprise me at this point."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that just yet."

With a small exhale, he pulls the bandage free, and unravels the mystery behind them. He reaches down his trouser pocket and pulls out a shard of glass. When he offers it to Kye, she hesitantly reaches for it, unsure if the sight in it is truly what she wants to see. Bringing it up to her face, the first thing she realizes is that her eyes are now a bright, fiery brown, bordering on orange. Her boring, dark brown eyes had become bright, much to her shocked delight. The second thing she notices are the features on her face. She had become older. Without even needing a second glance, the change is evident – her face had become longer, her jaw had become sharper, her nose had gone higher and her lips had gone thinner.

And the last thing she notices – the 'strange' thing that had Aedan so bothered – are the strange, sharp objects protruding from the sides of her head.

"Are these—" A gasp escapes her lips. She drops the shard and reaches up to grab the horn sticking out of her head. It feels tough and sharp. "I have horns?!"

Aedan hesitates, pocketing the shard that Kye had dropped. "They started growing the minute you fell unconscious. They finally stopped about noon yesterday, remaining that size until now."

"But— But why do I have—" Kye can't find the appropriate words to express her emotions. She grips both horns with both hands, searching the remaining skin on her head for signs of other abnormalities. Behind her larger horns there were two skinnier, smaller horns, which both twisted and curled around the firsts like veins.

"We've spent hours wondering what they could be. What they could mean." Aedan says. "No Earthling or Thedasian have ever experienced such a transformation in their lives. Or, none that we know, at least. According to many, your horns resemble those on a... Qunari."

Qunari.

Kye's heart skips a beat.

"A Qunari." She whispers, finally removing her hands from the strange protruding bones on her head. "I'm a Qunari?"

Aedan narrows his gaze, and says, "No. Your anatomy is so obviously human. The only feature about you that links you to the Qunari are the horns."

This doesn't make any sense. How can she have the horns of a Qunari when she's human? And why did they only start growing two days ago? Why didn't she have them when she first woke? Which brings about a bigger question; Are all Earthlings – people who've arrived in Thedas from Earth – human? Or could they have woken up in the form of an elf or dwarf or, hell, Qunari as well? She shelves the question, when she realizes Evelyn's nowhere to be fond.

"Evelyn—"

"She is safe." Aedan reassures her, touching her arm gently. "She wanders the garden due North the tower, saying she needed some time to unwind and accept the whole thing."

Kye raises an eyebrow. "A garden in this desert? Is that even possible?"

Aedan chuckles, and stands to grab a jug of water sitting on the table opposite Kye's bed. It reminds her of the elf who scampered off at her wake. "Because this tower has become a Grey Warden post, we invited mages, several weeks ago, to enchant the drying gardens, so that our vegetation could grow properly. We needed food and herbs alike, and that can only be reached through means outside conventional traditions, given our current location."

"An enchanted garden." Kye says, smirking, just slightly. "I bet Evelyn loves that."

"She seems mighty fond of it ever since she stumbled upon its location hours after you fell unconscious." Aedan pauses, his voice reducing to a hushed whisper. "She says it reminds her of the landscape on Earth. She speaks much of it."

He pours a glass of water for her, and hands it to her after coming back. She takes it, and sips it chastely, before chugging the whole glass down, throwing her head back in the process. Her throat burns as she rehydrates.

"Tell me of Earth. I wish to understand it."

Kye wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. She stares at Aedan, long and hard, trying to figure out what he really means, before finally placing the cup down. "On Earth—" She hesitates, wondering if she should really start with such selfish news. In the end, she decides to go for it. Aedan has the right to know, right off the bat, what Dragon Age really is. What his world really means. "Our world – Earth – it has become so advanced that we control... we control stories, tales, over a flashing monitor, powered by 'electricity'. We call these tales 'games'. These games are created by— by companies, groups of people whose intelligence go far beyond average. Your world – Thedas – it's... it's a game, Aedan."

The hard steeliness on Aedan's face remains. But in his eyes, Kye can see slight doubt. "A game?"

Kye clenches her hands, and nods. "Everything in this world is all... make-believe to people from Earth. It's all created. All fabricated. It's not— It's not real."

"Not real?" Aedan takes a moment, before laughing. A spiteful, almost cruel, laugh. "How can it not be real, Kyedan? I am real, you are real! Do you understand what you're saying? Thedas is not real? What nonsense."

"It's not nonsense, Aedan!" Kye hesitantly swings her legs over the bed she's on, and reaches out to grab both Aedan's shoulders. Her hands drop harshly on his hard muscles, but Kye feels, shockingly, the subtle tremble on his shoulders. "I know this is real. I don't know how, but it is. And— And I know this is a lot to take in. But what would I gain for lying to you? I have no reason to. On Earth— On Earth, you don't exist, Aedan. You and your world and everything in it – the magic and the Fade and the Maker Himself –only exist within the borders of a man-made object."

Aedan pulls away from her touch and stands, taking in deep breaths while simultaneously trying to calm his nerves by rubbing his palm over his forehead. He faces the open window, breathing loudly, shaking his head. Kye watches him. She watches the way he goes from stoic and confident, to dubious and anxious. If someone had told her her world was fake, she'd be reacting the same way. But probably worse. She'd call the man mad, insane, all sorts of names.

"Kyedan, your world sounds terrible." He laughs cruelly, without turning back. "I have heard little from Evelynia. She speaks of the technology on Earth. She speaks of its capabilities, of its wondrous powers that could enhance, as well as destroy. We talk long into the night as you lie unconscious in this very room, but never once has she admitted that the existence of my world was created by men for the purpose of – of a game."

"It was, at first." Kye says quickly. "But maybe not anymore. I mean, Earthlings were sucked into a tornado created by a woman from this very 'game'. If she could— If she'd breached the Veil and come into our world, that can only mean yours exist within ours as well."

Aedan shakes his head roughly. "This doesn't make any sense, Kyedan."

"I know." Kye breathes shakily.

A long pregnant silence stretches through the room. For a moment, Kye wonders if it's just her imagination – But she hears a strange clicking noise from beyond the walls that hold them. That's how bad the silence becomes.

The silence starts to speak.

"I suppose sense isn't exactly a priority." Aedan finally says, his voice soft and gentle, as if he doesn't want to scare Kye, as if he doesn't want to scare himself along with her. "Right now, all that matters is we figure out a way to get you back to your world. How it happened will come in time, as it always does. And Morrigan—" He inhales sharply, and finally, turns around. "Morrigan will have our answers."

There's a steady hardness in his eyes, a champion of confidence, evident, for Kye to see and envy, despite the desperate confusion clouding his expression. She knows the Hero of Ferelden is nothing short of brave, courageous, smart and strong – In short, he's a Paragon – but she can't help but want to see a flaw. She can't help but dig deeper past his exterior frame, for a scar, so that she doesn't feel too bad about her own weak state.

The thought is so selfish she almost doubles back with guilt.

She runs her fingers through her hair, not at all used to the feel of the rough, spiky horns sticking out of her scalp, and gets out of bed. At first, her legs, unused to the pressure, wobble and knock knees at the sudden movement. She struggles with the very idea of walking. But as she takes a few steps forward, and forces her knees to straighten up, her nerves get the hang of it, and she walks, smoothly, if not fluidly, around the room in circles.

With a sigh, she bends a knee, and presses the top of her foot against a wall, bending so that she stretches her other leg. She repeats the process with her other foot, and once done, bends down to touch her toes.

"Okay." She exclaims, straightening up. "I'm good. Let's find us some magical witch doctor."

The corner of Aedan's lip quirk – just slightly. "Not so fast, Earthling." He says, crossing his arms. "Despite your basic knowledge on hand-to-hand combat, your physical attributes are absolutely appalling. If I'd actually been planning on killing you, you and your friend would've been dead before the nugs fully roasted."

Kye rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Yeah, well, we don't exactly have fighting classes back on Earth. I mean, we do. But it's only for those who want to do it. And fighting with swords?" She laughs. "That's so medieval century."

"Yeah, well," Aedan says, mimicking Kye's tone with his voice pitched just a tad higher for added emphasis. "You're not on Earth any longer. And unless you want your head impaled on a spear, or your body smashed into a pulp by a warhammer, I suggest you learn how to fight. And quick. Who knows how long the tear will be there, until it becomes permanent."

Kye's heart starts pounding harder against her chest. Has she told anybody about how much she longs to fight the way the characters of Dragon Age do? Because she does. Very much so. "I can't just— learn how to fight. I mean— I can't even box! I took two months of it and dropped out cause I kept coming home with limp limbs."

"I'm not saying you learn off a manual. That's not how it works here in Thedas." Kye wants to add that it doesn't work like that on Earth either, but decides to keep it to herself. "You're a warrior. I saw the way you handled that sword. I saw the bravery in your eyes, the confidence in your steps. You're a warrior, and you attack recklessly, and bravely. You are two-handed. Which means that I will take the burden of training you."

Kye's eyes fly open. "You?" She exclaims. "The Hero of Ferelden... train me?!"

Aedan smiles, a defiant look in his deep blue eyes. "Before I was the Hero of Ferelden, I was the youngest heir of the Cousland family. I learned how to handle a sword from the moment I could hold one. Trust me when I say – by the time I'm done with you, you'll be battling against rows of enemies without hindrance, like a true warrior does."

She feels a stirring deep inside of her, edging her onwards, calling out to her like a Prothean beacon. She knows that she can't refuse even if she wants to. So, furrowing her brows, forcing a confident smile, and straightening her back, she breathes out a silent sigh, and says,

"Alright, Cousland. Let's see what you can turn me into."