He was naked, strung up by his wrists in the Tower basement. Greagoir held the whip as he surveyed his barely conscious body. "Magic is meant-" he paused as he lashed him across the abdomen. "To serve man" another lash across the back. "And never" a lash to the left leg. "Rule over him" a lash to the back again. He came around and grabbed his face in his hand, and began to yell, but his voice was not Gregoir's. Instead the voice of the archdemon spewed forth. "I have seen your soul, and it belongs to me. You will fail Hunter. Your lands will burn, your people will die, and I will bring darkness. And you will despair in your failure, and then I shall kill you slowly and painfully." And his mind was filled with fire and screams, and evil laughter.

He work up with a start, sweating profusely. The first thing he noticed was that it was dark. He could smell the rich earthy smell of the forest, and hear the animals prowling around looking for a meal. He winced as he sat up completely, the wounds in his chest still sore from the darkspawn. Xander realized that he was naked, and that his wounds were dressed and bandaged. He looked around, his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness and realized that he was in a tent. He reached out with his senses, trying to detect any mages, but could not pinpoint anything. He slowly got out of the bedroll he was in and saw his armor on the ground, but not his staff. He dressed as quickly as possible, then exited the tent. He saw a fire, and three other tents. He searched the first one, and it was empty. He searched the second one, and found Alistair sleeping deeply. His fellow warden had a bandage around a head wound, and his sword arm completely wrapped up. Xander felt panic rise up in his head, but pushed it down as he tried to formulate a plan. He exited the tent and sat by the fire, staring into it as he considered options. "Your friend will live" he heard a sultry voice say. He stood up and saw the speaker, and hastily stifled a gasp of surprise.

She was tall, about an inch shorter than him. Her hair was dark with streaks of red in it, and she wore it tied back in a ponytail. She wore a blood red tunic with a hood on it, cut low and showing a fair amount of her generous cleavage. She had a black leather plate underneath her tunic around her midsection and the outer part of her midsection was covered with a dragonskin corset. Her blood red drakeskin boots came up slightly above her knees, and her tunic split down the sides, showing her thick thighs and teasing a view of her ample buttocks. She wore a black leather gauntlet on her left hand, with a bright blood red gem in the middle. Xander could see the hilt of a longsword on her back, but found himself staring at the red lyrium tattoos that adorned her arms and legs. She raised a finely arched eyebrow and smirked, staring at him with her beautiful red eyes. "See something you like?" she purred. Xander swallowed hard as blue eyes met red. "Who are you?" he asked. The woman smiled condescendingly at him. "You Fereldans have a strange way of showing gratitude. I saved your worthless life Hunter. That makes it mine." Xander narrowed his eyes as he wondered why he couldnt sense her magic. "My life is my own, maiden. I dont pledge it to people I dont know." Her smile grew colder. "You have to earn the right to ask me my name. And stop trying to sense my magic. Its not nice, and it wont work." He took a step backward. He didnt want to fight this woman, at least not without a staff. He had been trained in hand to hand combat, but it wasnt his strong suit. "You seem to know a lot about me and my powers." "Oh I know much you dont know Hunter. You think your precious Chantry invented marking the skin of the powerful with lyrium?" she mockingly asked as her lyrium glowed slightly. Xander's lyrium glowed as his anger rose. "Either explain yourself, or-" his sentence died in his throat as she walked close and stood directly in front of him. Her eyes were a mixture of contempt and amusement as she looked at him. "You'd kill me Hunter?" she purred. Xander tried to get his mind under control as he looked at her. "What do you want from me?" he whispered. She stepped back and smiled. "My name is Ashna, and I am from the mountains of Tevinter." "Why cant I sense your magic?" he asked. Ashna raised an eyebrow coyly. "Because I am a Wyvern Witch." Xander's eyes widened. "A Dragonblood mage" he mumbled. Ashna rolled her eyes. "You Fereldans love to label someone who doesnt follow your precious chantry as an apostate or blood mage, dont you? Yes, I drunk the blood of a dragon and it fused with my mana. Thats why my lyrium is red." Xander remembered reading about the order of Wyvern Witches and Mages, about how they ruled the Tevinter Imperium for many years before being driven to the mountains by the Archons. He knew also that over the years they had become a race of nomads, forced to migrate as the dragons did. Ashna walked over to the fire and sat down. "My clan came to Ferelden because we heard rumors of a High Dragon coming here." Xander sat down with her, and saw that her eyes seemed a little sadder. "We made camp in the mountains south of here, when we were attacked by the darkspawn. My father, my brother, my friends were all cut down. My sister and mother were taken by the creatures. I was the only survivor." She closed her eyes, getting her emotions under control. "I followed the horde here, and then I've been following you since I saw you in the-" Her eyes narrowed as she stood up. "I hear something". Xander was so engrossed with her story that he didnt register the tingling at the base of his skull. "Darkspawn" he muttered.

Xander turned to Xeneya. "I need my staff" he whispered. "I used it to prop my tent up" she whispered back. Xander rolled his eyes as a group of genlocks and and two Alphas wielding mauls entered the camp. Ashna smiled ravenously. "Allow me" she whispered as she drew her sword. She let out a loud war cry as she drew her sword. Xander was reminded of the Saw Swords that Tevinter warriors used, the blade was wide at the top and serrated at the edge with red runes enscribed on the blade. Ashna ran her finger along the blade, and a streak of blood remained. The runes in the sword glowed, and then the blade was burning with a dark red flame. She let out another war cry as she charged the darkspawn. She launched a fireball at the group, two of the genlocks were blasted back and began crying out as mystical flames illuminated them from within as their very souls burned. She reached behind her with her non sword hand pulled out a red chakram. She flung it at the third genlock as she ran and it ignited with flames as it spun in the air, leaving a fiery trail in its wake. It decapitated the genlock and the creatures body ignited. A hurlock alpha growled as she reached it and swung its maul in a deadly arc, attempting to crush the beautiful mage warrior's ribs. Ashna dropped to her knees, her momentum carrying her forward as she leaned back and dodged the monster's blow. Her mystical chakram flew back to her hand and she caught it and in one motion sliced at the alpha's ankle tendons as she slid past it. It dropped to one knee and bellowed in pain. She pushed up to her feet and spun, leading with her sword. The alphas head rolled off into the darkness as it was cleanly cut from its body. The body fell forward with a thud as she sheathed her weapons. She looked down with anger blazing in her eyes and spit on the alpha's body.

Xander retrieved his staff and was pleased to see it was undamaged. He quickly grabbed it and engaged the other Alpha in battle. He parried the evil creatures lead blow with its maul, then used the blade to cleave the maul in two. He spun and blasted a genlock attempting to backstab him with a spirit strike, the magical purple bolt passing through the creature's midsection. He spun back towards the alpha and using the momentum brought SoulFang's blade across its throat. The creature gurgled as black blood flowed from the gap in its throat, feebly trying to stem the flow of ichor with its hands but succumbing to its mortal wound. The two lyrium marked arcane warriors regarded each other with a newfound sense of respect. "That was a chakram you used." quipped Xander. "Those are forbidden to be used by mages in Thedas." Ashna smiled mockingly. "So you can escort me to the nearest Chantry and I can atone for my sins." Xander smiled. "So, how did you know those darkspawn were coming?" she queried. "I am a Grey Warden, and one of our abilities is that we can sense darkspawn." Ashna's eyes widened. "So you plan on stopping this Blight?" Xander sighed. "It's my duty now. I have to try." Ashna nodded. "Well I'm coming with you. These creatures butchered my clan, and they will pay for that. Plus you'll probably get killed without me, and what would all the free mages do?" Xander flinched at her mention of his Hunter duties, but didnt press the issue and nodded. "Im going to check on Alistair. His injuries look bad. He's probably not going to be able to use his sword arm for a while. We need to move as soon as he's well enough to travel."

Ashna let out a breath as she watched Xander duck into the other Warden's tent. She had been impressed by the fluid way he used his martial abilities and his magic to slay those darkspawn. It was a damn shame that all that power was wasted serving those hyprocritical Chantry cows. Hopefully he wouldnt annoy her too much with his bullshit about the Maker and Andraste and all that crap that these Thedas people believed in. She would be damned if her magic would serve anyone but herself and her clan. By the blood of the dragon, she swore that she would not rest until the darkspawn all burned under her blood fire fury. And if the Wardens got in her way, they would burn too.