25.

A Voice From The Past

A.N. - Okay. It's time to actually stick our toe into the PLOT and see how hot it is. Isn't that exciting? Doing a little last minute research though, I have discovered there is a lot more non video game canon information than I expected. I have read the book Asunder, obsessively played all three games and that's it. I will check subjects on Dragon Age Wikia and read a few entries until my heart stops from boredom but none of the graphic novels, although I do have the basic understanding of what happened with Alistair, Sten, Isabela and Flemeth's other daughter, et al., in whatever mission it was they did. SO... huge favor please. If you read something completely out of line from what is already canon by virtue of being in the graphic novels, I did it out of ignorance. Please let me know, if you would, either in a review or a pm and I will fix it if possible. Don't be shy with the details of the error either, I don't have the $$ to read what I missed. I have started the process of re-reading this story from the beginning and proofing for idiotic mistakes and rampant comma usage but given the length of the story at this time that's obviously going to take a while.

Special to Erogous: Thank you so much! Comments like yours make me squeal like a little girl. Really. And your attaboy came at a much needed moment. I appreciate the time you took to read my work and to comment. And I hope I can bring the whole thing in under 200k words but I'm not promising anything.

25.

A Voice From The Past

Ellana shifted to a more comfortable position in her bed, hugged Robin's neck for the thousandth time and took another large sip of the potent alcoholic beverage Krem had left for her. The transgender from Tevinter had slammed a shot on his way out to gather up everyone again. Both the advisors and all of the inner circle. Plus one. It was a good thing that she'd had that nice relaxing trail ride earlier that morning because her entire world view had just been turned on its axis. Krem's, too. Once they had begun work that morning on the paper she was translating for him to scribe they had been unable to stop until the work was completed. It was late; past dinner. She was exhausted. Krem's hand was practically cramped in a fist from writing all day. But the job was done and she didn't believe the group should wait to hear a summary of its contents. One by one they trickled in and took seats where ever they could find them this time. There would be no formality or pre-planning now.

Morrigan came into the living area the same way she entered every room: as predator looking for likely prey. She perched herself elegantly on the ottoman and waited.

Krem, Bull and Dorian walked in together. They were last to arrive. Bull was the first to say anything. "You know, when I said that Krem knew how to keep his mouth shut, I didn't mean that he should refuse to tell ME. Not to mention that you both look like hell. Please tell me it's because the reading was boring." Bull waited for an answer and didn't get one. "Shit. The reading wasn't boring."

She ignored Bull's comments but spoke before they chose where to sit. "Dorian, love, come sit by me would you? Bull, you, too." They did as she asked with confused looks on their faces. Dorian was wedged between Bull and Ellana in the middle of her bed.

The rest of the room looked just as confused. Krem took aliquor bottle off the cart and sat back down behind Ellana's desk. He slammed another shot and then laid his head down on his arms. The looks of confusion became looks of concern.

Ellana took a deep breath and began. "I'm so sorry to call you here so late tonight. I really didn't feel as if this could wait until tomorrow. Mostly because reading this made me feel as if some sort of clock started ticking a countdown. Creators, I hope not." She chuckled sardonically. "Actually, I'm fairly certain that most of this paper won't mean anything to the majority of you and since we'd be here for hours if I read it aloud, I'll just hit the high points. But I will read the entire Forward to 'Fen'Harel: Balancing the Truth With The Mythology' because the Left Hand and her people are about to, forgive me, work their fingers to little nubs. Also, Krem has agreed to read aloud to Leiliana's scribes the copy he has made as many times as necessary. This information cannot be lost or forgotten again.

"First and most importantly we must learn why the bottom of the front page had Tevene writing on it that Krem had to translate: 'First Warden Robarius: Sir, Shal'Misu has been located and eliminated. His crypt was obviously handmade (therefore I believe him to have acted entirely alone), sealed from within and contained almost nothing. The items it did contain are included with this missive. I believe this is the last surviving copy of his treatise though we will continue our search during our travels. - Warden Commander Glynnus. 16 Ferventis, 5:26 Exalted '"

Ellana handed her mostly full drink to Dorian, whispered, "Drink it. Trust me," in his ear before she reached over Robin's noggin to her nightstand and picked up the sheaf of parchment she'd been reading from all day. She cleared her throat and looked at her group one last time. "Also, given that Solas should wake any time now and this paper concerns him and the closest friend he ever had, I am begging all of you now not to mention this to him until I can get him out of the infirmary, let him read the paper and then talk to Cole privately. Please."

With that, she began:

The year is 5:19 Exalted and I was once known as Shal'Misu. I am one of the few remaining Elvhen alive today and at last I can no longer endure. What this treatise contains is the truth. The truth of the last days of Elvehenan, of Arlathan, though even I no longer remember the exact year that the wars began between the elvhen. I know only that with the destruction of Elvehnan began a great misconception; one which would ultimately save thousands of human lives. Lives of humans who took to their knees rather than die before the might of the Tevinter Imperium, the great nation powerful enough to obliterate the elvhen and turn them into slaves. All life being precious and sacred, that is well and good and fine; it is the way of things, civilizations rise and fall. But that misconception entirely rewrote the modern perception of elvhen culture during that time and the truth of the events that occurred within Elvhenan itself prior to its downfall. To the victor goes the spoils; the most important 'spoil' being the written record and therefore how history understands what took place.

That misconception has left both of the 'elven' cultures today, those being the Dalish and the city and slave elves, longing for the return of what once was and floundering for a sense of their modern place in that ancient history. But the purpose of this article is not to restore that history to them. Nor is it to in any way diminish the accomplishments of the Tevinter Imperium. Again, 'to the victor' and that they were. This article will change nothing of consequence for the Magisterium or the Chantry; hopefully, it will change the way today's elves view the memory of the best person I ever knew. I hope that my people will one day see that bringing back the past would not offer us the promise of a future. I write those words not to incite rebellion but to create acceptance and understanding. To foster the willingness to let go of the errors in our history which were born out of the bitter regret of the loss mistaken as the end of the greatest days of ALL Elvhen.

I was once Fen'Harel's only Sentinel, a Guard or Knight Protector, if you will. Though we were both primarily scholars who preferred academia to the battlefield. I state that for the record in case convention requires I define my association with him in any way other than as my friend. Since the fall of Arlathan and the ultimate destruction of Elvehnan, I have been in the service of the most powerful magisterium families in Tevinter. My continued immortality being a valuable oddity to them, my name in Tevene has changed as often as I have changed owners when family fortunes have risen or fallen. This article is not written to spill the secrets of those families. I will not name them here nor myself during their time with them, at all.

I simply offer one man's truth. Or if you prefer, a different perspective on how that man is viewed by modern day Thedas. Elvehnan was far from being the picture of the idyllic society 'for all elvehn' that the elves believe they have lost; class structure then was much as it is now. Far from being the villain and the Dread Wolf that they call him, Fen'Harel was the common elf's greatest champion. They call him trickster, betrayer, deceiver and yet it is not his doing that 'trapped' the elvehn gods and the forgotten ones. We were best friends from early childhood; I was by his side during all of it. The facts as I remember them lie within. Elves need to know that the way forward does not lie behind them. Fen'Harel not only knew it; he lived it with every fiber of his being after the fall of Elvhenan.

This treatise was written in 5:15 Exalted. I have spent all my coin and the last four years making copy after copy after copy. They are to be sent in one large grouping to every Chantry, University, national government or historical society of note in areas where elves still live, in both Tevene and Elvish. Copies have already been sent to the Dalish themselves, to as many clans as I have been able to identify. If one single copy survives the fireplace, being lost in the stacks or the wilds and is read by one single person who shares it with others, then shall I be content to rest.

Shal'Misu

This article is dedicated to Solas. You are missed every day my friend but I have finally been able to win an occasional chess match. Sleep well.

Ellana put the papers back down on her nightstand and grabbed her now empty glass back from Dorian. She refilled it from a bottle there on the same nightstand, took several deep swallows and handed it back to Dorian. "So, as you can see, the Forward contains one extremely important bit of information. He distributed an untold number of these treatises and yet no mention has ever been made of them in history anywhere that we have seen. The contents are important, controversial and just the sort of thing that the Tevinter Chantry and governments would cover up but the rest of the world, ESPECIALLY the Qun once they entered into war with Tevinter, would have been thrilled to have this knowledge.

The important parts are... well, here they are. According to Shal'Misu, Solas was telling the truth when he told each of us, including me, that the Elvhen pantheon were never gods. I'll keep calling them the pantheon here for convenience. Shal'Misu claims they themselves knew it and yet allowed themselves to be worshipped as gods by the less powerful nobility, who amassed riches and built temples to their gods, all on the backs of the enslaved common elf."

Dorian sighed. "Well, that has the distasteful ring of familiarity, doesn't it?" He put his arm around Ellana's shoulder and she leaned into him.

"Those now known as the Forgotten Ones were similarly powerful beings who lacked the followers the pantheon did, primarily because they had no desire to provide anything of value to society. What caused the war was said to be the jealousy of the Forgotten Ones; that they attacked the pantheon and its followers first."

Morrigan shook her head angrily. "At this point, who can say if even that was accurate or not. It could merely be this Shal'Misu's own perception of the beginning of the war or the answer he was given at the time."

Varric laughed and it had a hard, bitter edge to it. "Solas once told me that history was the greatest work of fiction ever written."

Ellana sighed. "Exactly. Regardless, when the war began the front lines troops were, of course, the slaves of the followers of the pantheon and however the slaves of the Forgotten Ones were owned and organized. Shal'Misu and Fen'Harel spent the war saving as many slaves as possible. They split up; Shal'Misu was not a mage and the slaves he rescued from followers of the panetheon bore their markings when they escaped. They formed the bulk of today's Dalish. Fen'Harel removed the slave markings from those he saved, slaves to the Forgotten Ones, and sent them in a different direction. They are the origin of today's city elves in Ferelden especially and also Orlais.

"Tevinter's tale of conquering Elvehnan, specifically of bringing down Arlathan, they see it as the truth. But they did not, as Dorian and I learned from Abelas in the Temple of Mythal, actually do either. The Imperium appeared during the last days of the war between the two. Circumstances were desperate. According to Shal'Misu, the pantheon evacuated Arlathan and fell back in order for the Forgotten Ones to capture it. Once they had, the last desperate act of the war was for the pantheon, primarily Elger'non, to invest every bit of power they had in burying Arlathan as deep into the ground as they could manage. Down below the Dwarven Deep Roads, in fact. Unfortunately, all their troops went with them." Ellana sighed, took the drink back and swallowed some more. Then she took Dorian's hand in hers.

Varric frowned. "But that would mean... oh, no. And they have no idea how many Forgotten Ones, the godly type, existed do they?"

She shook her head. "Dorian. I'm so sorry. According to Shal'Misu, his most closely guarded secret as the Tevinter Imperium spread its influence over the next ages, was that the Tevinter Imperium to all appearances worshipped the Forgotten Ones, calling them instead their 'Old Gods.' While the Old God pantheon consists of seven different 'gods', we honestly have no idea how many there could be buried beneath all of us."

"Well. Shit." Bull was eloquent as ever. "So that means there are an untold number of Blights waiting to occur?"

Ellana nodded but had other news. "Let me finish the tale of the pantheon and then I will read to you a final page written by Shal'Misu directly to Solas and only with this original document, in the hopes that he would be the one to find Shal'Misu's crypt. It was apparently a place with which both were familiar. Anyway, the decision was made by the pantheon, who were all badly weakened and injured, to enter into a world known to them through the eluvians. Which, of course, calls into question where the eluvians themselves came from rather than how did the elvhen construct them. Mythal had disappeared, though we later find out she was betrayed and murdered though it is not apparently known by whom. A mage of the pantheon would be needed to stay behind to lock the eluvian at the crossroads. Fen'Harel was ordered to do so because he had refused to fight in the war, instead saving as many of his People as possible. He followed his father's instructions and Shal'Misu went covertly to Tevinter after the ending of the war to learn their people's fate. Fen'Harel traveled the world through the crossroads: opening an eluvian, passing through and destroying it, then traveling alone to the next one. Where he would enter the crossroads again, destroy the eluvian, choose a new one and repeat the process. Shal'Misu made it clear that Fen'Harel had succeeded in his mission and all known eluvians were destroyed."

Morrigan snorted. "He was obviously wrong about that, though not far from wrong. I would estimate there are less than a handful in existence throughout the world, none but mine actively operated."

"Well, Shal'Misu apparently lost contact with Solas not long after the second Blight was over. The last missive from him stated that he had been badly injured and would be attempting to enter uthenera in order to heal. I can only surmise that he wanted the people who read this article to assume that means of travel was no longer available to them. And my next best guess is that the task he wants to perform is to bring his family back, to reestablish Elvhenan, because after all this time he thinks that's the only hope for elvenkind." Ellana sighed.

"Before I entertain any real questions, I need to read you this last page. It's short. It's very bad news.

Solas, my dear friend. How I have missed you this thousand years I have spent alone. The world is an entirely different place than we had hoped, brother. Matters are worse for our People than ever and I fear my own long sleep until you return is the only way I will ever be able to make a difference: by your side. I know you will have not forgotten this place, this cave where we used to play as boys and make up wild tales.

I'm sorry to say that I have a wild tale for you now though it is entirely true. The time now is the end of the fourth Blight. It was led by Anaris, apparently now known as Andoral. We previously exchanged messages about your concerns regarding the Grey Wardens, about the ritual that allowed them to ingest darkspawn blood and somehow therefore be able to end the life of an immortal Forgotten One, known now as an Old God of Tevinter. (Further, they are now called archdemons once corrupted by the Blight). I am sorry to tell you that your fears were correct.

A mage appeared on the warden's doorstep in Weisshaupt, volunteering for the joining. All are welcome in a Blight and this mage, incredibly powerful and well educated, studied the joining ritual and suggested some changes to it to make the wardens stronger and stave off the Calling longer. I cannot say what those were with any accuracy, only that my master learned in a visit from one who he would only name 'the Architect' that the changes, made by his follower at his behest, would make the wardens controllable by one who held the power to do so. My master being quite a powerful magister, he dreamt immediately of the world's most powerful military organization under his thumb. His one disappointment at the thought was the griffons, who are sadly extinct after this last Blight. When he began plotting such a thing, I fled here.

I will sleep until the day that you wake me to fight by your side once more, my brother. Dareth'shiral.

Shal'Misu

No one missed Cole's relieved sigh. Ellana interpreted it to mean that they had uncovered a large piece of the puzzle. Hopefully she was correct. "Okay. That's what we have until Leiliana twiddles her magic fingers and gives us more. Questions, thoughts?"

Sera snorted. "Pffft. Thoughts. Yeah. Who cares?"

Leiliana spoke immediately. "Sera, the Architect is a talking darkspawn that the Warden of Ferelden ran into in the Arl of Amaranthine. It admitted to causing the fifth Blight. The Warden reported that his unit killed him. Just like Corypheus was killed by Hawke and her party. Just like the Inquisitor and her party saw Corypheus kill himself in the Arbor Wilds and rise again immediately. If the Architect is alive today, then this news is... well, not good is a gross understatement."

Sera's jaw dropped. "Well. Shite. I take it all back."

There was a brief silence, followed by an awkward start to a sentence from Cullen when the door to Ellana's quarters startled all of them by slamming open and then footsteps raced up the stairs. "My Lady! Good news, My Lady."

Blackwall sort of growled like a bear and rubbed his hand through his hair. "Has anyone else noticed that hardly ever happens around here?"

Ellana managed a smile even after her stressful day. "What is it, Feyndal?"

"Ser Solas is awake, My Lady. Awake, starving and eager to see you!"