ESCAPE

WYNNE'S SILVER-GREY EYES WERE HEAVILY lidded where she sat leaning against the tower's stone wall, breathing slowly, Petra and Kinnon fussing over her.

"Stop it, you're going to scare the children." She said as she gently swatted their hands away from her. She cost herself a quick glance over at Keili watching the children. She nodded a resolute, yet soft expression on her face to keep the children from worrying.

"I'm fine Petra. How are the children?"

"They are brave." The younger mage said smiling faintly.

Wynne studied the young woman. She remained strong, but in her eyes she could see the fear Petra felt, especially after the recent attack in the library. Wynne had been scouting the library for any survivors before sealing the gate to their hideout when she had heard Petra's terrified scream. The abomination had been the largest and strongest she had met so far and the battle had been devastating. Furniture and books had flown across the library, crashing into the walls, exploding in the air. One of the chairs had hit Wynne in the back just after casting a deadly spell at the abomination and she crashed into one of the heavy bookshelves which rose to the ceiling like stoic knights. Something had snapped in a most unpleasant manner then her had world blackened and for a few seconds she seized to exists. It was a very strange feeling. It was not like others spoke of when nearly dying, she did not see a splendid light, or hear voices. Nor was it like fainting, it had been final. Her life threads had severed and her life had come to an end. Still… here she sat leaning against the cold wall. Glancing around the great hall she counted the children. All were left and unharmed. She closed her eyes momentarily feeling her strength come back to her.

"Wynne." Kinnon said carefully to get her attention. She looked up at him. "The barrier, we need to erect it again."

She nodded tiredly getting up slowly, feeling her legs shake slightly and her bones ached from the cold air in the tower. She shuddered. It was a clear sign that most likely everyone besides their small group had either died or been transformed into abominations. When the tower was at peace, warmth was brought by the small fires and magic. Without it the tower was damp and miserable.

She blinked wearily as she studied the stone floor walking up towards the arching doorway where the barrier once stood. Closing her eyes she focused on her magic, pulling it from deep within. It rose gently, like it always did. She could feel it like a small flame in her chest, its warmth spreading through her body, infusing her with the pure magic. She smiled. This feeling was familiar to her, like home, like the tower itself. She let the magic flow through the tips of her fingers sealing the doorway shut.

"There. This should keep us safe." She said turning around smiling confidently to the others. As she watched each and every one of their faces she could see that they all looked to her for reassurance. She chuckled her characteristic motherly chuckle. This was the reason she had declined the position as First Enchanter when it had been offered to her. She had no desire to work in the upper ranks, bearing the heavy burden of the tower and all its residents on her shoulder. It was not that she was not ready for the responsibility - she simply believed that helping apprentices learn to control and wield their magic was far more important, not to mention more rewarding.

She walked over to Petra, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. As she caught a glimpse of the heavy metal gates at the far end of the corridor a wave of hoplessness washed through her. In all her years in the tower, walking through those heavy gates she never could have imagined herself being locked up behind them. Left to die or worse become an abomination. It was a frightening thought and being shut up in a tower full of abominations running rampage it seemed more than a likely scenario, but she wouldn't give up without a fight. It was draining to keep the barrier up, but even so, it had to be done.

Wynne had almost reached the far end of the grand hall when she heard something crackle and spit, alarming them of danger. They turned around at the sound, Petra's hands holding a spell, Kinnon and Keili grabbing the children ushering them towards the back of the room their hands too carrying spells ready to use.

The demon seemed to be digging its way up through the floor, its twisted body aflame as if it was a living torch. Its gnarled body twisted and twitched heaving with hissing breaths. Wynne shuddered and felt a chill creep up her spine at the sight of it, quietly wondering whose body the demon had snatched this time. She fired off her spell at it with a graceful flick of her hand. The demon got knocked aside by the spell. Petra's spell whizzed through the cold tower air, freezing the demon to the ground before it exploded into a million tiny pieces.

"Well that was pretty impressive. For a couple of tower mages."

Wynne spun on her heels facing a young woman. The young woman blushed slightly giving a white-haired, tall elf a reprimanding look.

"What?" The elf asked shrugging her shoulders.

The young woman rolled her eyes before looking back at Wynne. She was wearing heavy plate armour, but it didn't bear the templar's crest on its chest as theirs normally did, but Wynne had no doubt in her mind why the young woman was there. Behind her loomed six followers. Returning her eyes to the young woman she found that she recognized her face from somewhere.

"Wynne?" The young woman inquired. Wynne smiled inwardly as she recognized Duncan's newest recruit. She was amazed to see that she had survived Ostagar. The mage had barely made it out alive herself and unlike the new grey warden she hadn't even been at the front lines. Even after the battle it must have been hard for her, and her fellow warden Alistair, the former templar she had also met at Ostagar, to travel through out Ferelden now with Loghain's lies about the grey warden's betrayal.

"Deanna, it is good to see some of the wardens made it out alive from Ostagar." Wynne greeted her politely. "Why have you come here warden?" She added sternly.

"We've come to seek the aid of the circle, but Gregoir…"

"Told you we were in no shape to help you." Wynne finished the warden's sentence grimly.

"Well, that's one way to put it." The female elf said nonchalantly.

Wynne studied her briefly and the dark hair woman next to her. There was something unearthly about the elf, and the woman next to her could be nothing but a witch. Returning her eyes to the female warden who seemed to be their leader she folded her arms.

"They did say you had a bit of a pesk-problem." Deanna said in an effort to ease the tension.

Wynne felt her heart sink. Perhaps it was her poor try to mask her emotions, perhaps it was her weariness that betrayed her, but Deanna strapped her swords to her back.

"Don't worry, the annulment of rights haven't arrived yet."

Wynne shook her head. "So they've sent for it…"

"Be that as it may, I need the mages help to stand against the blight."

Wynne was slightly surprised at the determined, businesslike tone the seemingly young and inexperienced woman's voice had taken.

"Well, there isn't much time we have on our hands then." Wynne stated. "I have erected a barrier to keep the abominations out, only I can remove it." She continued nodding towards the blue shimmering barrier.

"Very well, we will help you clean this mess up." Deanna said glancing about the room. "What about those?" She nodded towards the children.

"They will be safe as long as we eliminate all the abominations in our way."

Deanna nodded and threw a glance at the young children and for a fleeting second Wynne thought she could see something sad flicker past in her eyes before it was gone replaced by determination. Looking at Deanna's followers the senior enchanter frowned. They were not all Grey Wardens, so who were these people?

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The Arkon dungeons were legendary. Tales whispered of unholy beings, ripples in the fade, prisoners disappearing, vanishing into the dark night, other losing their sanity from the constant whispering in the sinister darkness of the dungeons. The Arkon dungeons had been built on the island of Estwatch, impossible to infiltrate, impossible to escape. There was only one way to leave – as a corpse. No one had ever escaped the Arkon dungeons, none, but him.

Glub awoke from the yelling outside, quickly coming to his senses. Glub was the kind of man most people looked at and silently wondered to themselves whether he might be some half-breed quanari. He was a tall as one, but bulkier and heavier. A lot of those who saw him thought he was all muscles – big, bulky, and slow. Not many knew that Glub grew up with a father who trained the king's home guard. To Glub battle was like a rhythm, each and every sound sounded to him like a tone or a beat telling him what was going on. That was how he and Sin had pulled so many chores through out the years that no one else would even look at, his battle skills and her powers and tactic sense. Now he had no Son, she was gone, and he had to rely on his own skills – nothing he doubted, but it would have been easier to have her there nonetheless. It always was.

Rolling off the bed he grabbed his long sword as he went, listening to the ongoing battle. Bolting through the guild's lair he prayed silently to the Maker that the fighting hadn't reached the lair yet. Turning at a sharp right angle he burst through the thick wooden door to the young girl's room jolting her awake.

"To the tunnels." He ordered her as she climbed out of her bed looking slightly groggy. He moved with swiftness across the room grabbing clothes and boots tossing them to the young girl. She caught them easily dressing quickly. Glub and Sin had drilled her many times at this only this time he also tossed her the two daggers instead of the wooden ones they used to practice with. She gave him a quizzical look before nodding, strapping them to her waist.

When Nimue had her sixth birthday Glub had woken up from a strange dream of Hallas and the female dales staring into two sets of blue eyes.

"What now?" He had grumbled, hiding his head underneath the soft pillow.

"Glub." Sin whispered, tossing her boot at him when he didn't answer. "Glub, she's found your daggers."

He sat up immediately expecting something to be horrible wrong, but instead the small six year old twirled the daggers in her hands, making it look as if she had never done anything else.

"Ok. Enough." Sin gave her a stern look and the little girl smiled bashfully placing them on the floor. "You know what this means." She said looking at Glub.

"Yeah, that we'll make a hell of a load of gold showing her off in the streets of Highever." He winked causing the little girl to giggle, earning himself a hard slap on his shoulder from Sin.

"Ok, ok. Looks like you my little dare devil are about to become the youngest person ever to go through the home guards drilling. Well, a very… shall we say, cut down version of it." He said feeling slightly proud of the little girl standing in front of him.

Sin ushered her out of the room before turning towards him. "Glub… this is… not good."

"Come her princess." He said to the elf who rolled her eyes at the nickname, patting the side of his bed. "How is this bad?"

"She has seen me. She takes after me, but it's not just that. She only saw me do that once. It's like she learns things… much faster than normal kids." Sin said sounding miserable.

"Are you afraid that…" His voice trailed off.

She nodded silently. "If that's the case they might come for her one day and we need to be prepared."

"Then we start at once." He said determinedly.

They had started Nimue's training that very same day and now it seemed time had come to see how much she had learnt.

"Now let's go." He grabbed her by the hand as they sprinted out into the thin hallway. They both halted for a second as they heard the lair's door shatter, and rustling of soldier's heavy boots thundering down the stony stairs.

They broke into a mad dash for the entrance to the tunnels. This time she ran along side him, her hands balled into small fists. She was fast. Just like Belkin and Sin. He sometimes suspected she might be using magic to enhance her speed. Both Belkin and Sinniralin had been able to wield the magic after all. Bustling through Sin's bedroom door Glub skidded onto his knees ripping the hidden trap door open.

"Find the girl!" The man's dry voice echoed through the lair as Glub barred the door to Sin's room. It wasn't long until they would find them, and they needed all the head start they could get.

.

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Wynne steered out of the harpy tongued witch's way. Not out of fear, but because she had more important things do deal with than some insolent apostate witch. The tower had been swarmed by abominations. Wynne had expected it to be difficult to clear out the tower, but in all honesty she hadn't expected it to be this difficult, not to mention exhausting. It had taken them nearly three hours to clean out the first floor. It was all very surreal and she shook her head. Two weeks ago the tower had been warm and alive, the bustling of mages filling the tower, their laughter and voices echoing through the hallways.

Only a few months ago she had been mentoring the apprentices and now… now she had been forced to slay most of them. It had saddened her heart greatly that so many had chosen to follow Uldred's lead, doing these terrible deeds. It wasn't that she didn't understand their anger, frustration and the feeling of injustice. At times she agreed. As much as the tower was a home it was also a prison and the mages its prisoners. In a way their prison was worse than the dungeons. The dungeons were for those who stole, killed, murdered, raped, or did other crimes or broke the law somehow. The mages however had been imprisoned for something they were. As much as she understood why and could see how the Chantry reasoned she sometimes still found herself questioning this way of living. She knew that this fear of every mage turning into an abomination was born from misunderstandings, however she also knew that this fear was a serious and real one at the same time. No matter how good intentions the mage had, his gift would always attract demons and thus the mage risking to be possessed. Therefore at the same time she had days of doubt, she always knew the reason for the Circle and she was happy, and proud to be teaching and mentoring young mages so that they could earn their place in this world, learn how to wield the magic.

Climbing the stone stairway the white-haired elf climbed past her. The senior enchanter shivered when the elf's arm brushed against her own- she felt as if something reached out for her, pulled at her magic, then the feeling disappeared.

"Something's amiss here." The warden's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Sin." Deanna turned towards the white-haired elf that walked up to their leader.

Sin placed her palms on the cold floor. Instantly a web of thin, blue lines shot out from the elf's fingertips. The line twisted and turned, tracing the stone walls and floor in a fine unbroken web. The small company followed the lines with their eyes until they fell on a big, black space where the web's lines did not connect. The web changed colour from blue to red and more holes appeared in the web at several different places. Wynne was fascinated, and stood looking at the scene in front of her in awe. The elf used Druid Fire! Wynne could hardly believe her eyes. She had only ever heard about it, but never seen anyone use it, not even the first enchanter Irving could wield such powerful magic.

Druid Fire could map landscapes, places, detect animals, people, even tell races apart from each other. Depending on the mage's skill he could use different variations of the spell and the elf – it seemed, could use quite a few.

"Little abominations." She heard the elf mutter as she studied the red web in front of her.

"So this… show us all the abominations in the tower?" The bard spoke from behind them.

"Mm…" The elf nodded before the web faded from red to a soft shade of purple. This time the elf lifted her left hand from the floor and the blue web trickled out from the top of her fingers and fell to the floor in twisting motions. It ran alongside the purple. The black spaces in the purple web appeared a little here and there, not as frequently as when the elf had been looking for abominations and where the big, black space in the blue web appeared so did it in the purple. The elf seemed to frown before she stood up and brushed off her knees. The Druid Fire evaporated instantly into the cold air.

"There are a few demons on this level, nothing much to worry about, however…" The elf's voice trailed off.

"What?" The templar asked suspiciously squinting his eyes.

"There is something more. Something much more dangerous, I just can't decide what it is. A demon and a warp of some sort."

"A rip in the Fade?" Wynne asked feeling a chill creep up her spine. If there was indeed a rip in the Fade, things were far worse than she had expected. No wonder the tower had been overrun so easily.

"Yes, I suppose that what you mages would call it… However this entity… is tied to it somehow, connected. Over there." She nodded towards the dark corridor, her face looking stern and grim.

Deanna sighed, unsheathing her sword, hooking the shield off her back. "Well, you know what to do. Take out the spellcaster first."

They all nodded before following their leader into the dark hallway, looming behind her as she and Alistair pushed the heavy, wooden door open.

The last thing Wynne remembered was muttering for them all to resist, then they all dropped to the floor one bye one. The templar was the first to drop then the big quanari fell to the ground, closely followed by the others. There was only one left standing when the enchantress succumbed. The white-haired elf and as her eyes closes the elf is still standing, sneering as she draws her daggers.

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Survival. It was the most important skill Glub had learnt from his father, and it was much needed in the underworld. Glub had many techniques to survive and through out the years he had learnt that even the sacrifice of your friend's life for your own was just one way to avoid the inevitable. Death. His own survival had always been his main concern. It had been for so long, and he had survived no doubt, his reputation exceeding him by far although in his defence he had worked quite hard for the many terrifying rumours of him to spread so wildly across Ferelden.

Then Sinniralin came stumbling back into his life with a young daughter – the apple of his eye – and suddenly the rules of surviving had changed. It was no longer him, who must survive, but Sin and her daughter. He must only survive until he knew they would be safe, or he would die trying. No matter how you looked upon it the answer was always the same. They must be kept safe. They must survive. Glub knew this where he say by the trapdoor, peering into the dark tunnels. The door shattered behind him as the soldiers came storming into the small room.

"Run Nimue!" He shouted into the tunnel before he felt the soldier's blade pierce him. Crumbling to a heap his eyes swam with tears as his vision blurred and faded and he blinked in confusion as the tunnel filled with heavy armoured soldiers. There was no pain and the only sound to be heard was his own slowing heartbeat echoing along with another one thumping faster and more intent. Run. He urged her silently before turning his head to the side facing his killer.

"Y-you!"

TO BE CONTINUED…

A.N: Hey everyone, guess who's had a long vacation. Me! But alas it is over, however that means back to writing. ;) Hope you've all had a great summer and are up for an awesome epic adventure with Sin.

Thanks to every single one of you who have subscribed, added to favourites, reviewed and read. You all make my day!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

~Elmjuniper