A/N Had a few nights of restlessness, but I'm back on track with this chapter and the next being posted today. :)
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Ice and Fire, always countering each other, forming crystals and plasma. Blasts of intense energy tearing into wood and metal, melting what it does not shatter, fury and precision.
"They're still coming!" The First screams as she stands where no First wishes to be.
"RAWR!" A dozen shades form in a group, cornering the hunters, she can see the rebellious nature of them as each are slowly bled dry by the Possession.
"Hold them back! We have to hold them back!" Relas shouts in the fury of battle.
The trees sway to the torrent of winds, the season of change sparking thunder as their Keeper burns with the same black taint they fear from the First. Relas' blade meets flesh after bloody flesh as he desperately cuts into the absolute horde around them.
"Take no prisoners, they do not deserve to survive."
He turns to see a creature, shadowed and powerful. He goes to order the charge on the creature, the leader of the assault, "Enasalin-!" Another array of fireballs cascade across the pond behind him, cutting him off as another battlefront opens, corpses rising out of the shallow water.
Darien whips around, slicing at a Rage demon as two eruptions of fire scorch the land around them, darkness following in the form of demons and taint. He kills it with ease, using his talents at the hunt to hit every vital of every enemy on his path towards the Keeper.
Have to stop this...
He's tossed to the side, ice slicing at his already burning wounds. "AH!" He screams at the bitter contrast and rolls to the side to see its source.
The First stands there, battling with the Keeper, killing everything around them in a panic, "Fen-" He slowly coughs as he realizes the Keeper's dead and hollow eyes were on him. He rolls, and runs, dodging as much as he can when an ice shard slices past his head, tossing him aside and tearing his helmet in two. "Gah!"
Everything is dusty, shallow, he can smell her hair, feel the burning heat as they kiss under the moonlight after a successful hunt-
He shakes his head as he comes back to the Keeper's tight grip around his throat, "Shemlen..." She moans in her dead voice. He feels himself lifted off the ground, pain wracking every bone in his body as she pierces his mind. Everything ignites in a burning hot white pain... then, a snap, and everything goes dark, but a whisper is left...
"I offer what you must do, what must be done..."
Eyes flicker as Darien breathes, accepting the deal in an instant, feeling everything shift. He no longer feels that pain. That burning, the cold embrace of death. He finally open his eyes to see himself being choked to death by the Keeper, only... slower, way slower. He looks around to find the world has nearly stopped. Fireballs and Ice hanging in the air like the wind itself, lightning striking slowly, coursing through bodies of his brethren.
"It appears a deal has been struck!" A breaking voice shudders around him and everything just... pauses.
Darien turns to come face to face with a demon.
"Not demon, spirit."
What's the difference?
"I am just... a bit more civilized." Claws, scrape against armor as the creature grabs him, "You have one moment to change everything, what do you choose?"
Darien's eyes go still as he halts his panic at how grotesque the creature was. "I... want to keep my family alive."
It lets go in an instant, laughing at his choice, "Just your family? Hmm, very well." It waves a hand and-
Darien's eyes match his father's as he screams, "JUST GO!" The young elven hunter takes no chances and bolts it out of there grabbing the Keeper's staff from her cold dead hands, using it in the fight past demon and shade, tackling hunters away to clear a way into the wilds.
Everything shudders and the eye of my mind focuses past his lingering memory of that moment.
Darien made a deal alright,
I shake my small head in Raven form.
Their keeper wasn't the one to go insane, the First killed her and panicked as the Clan went against her, sundering the veil in an instant and forcing the entire place to fall into chaos.
I stretch my wings as I finally awaken from my inner thoughts to look down upon the Dalish camp, eying Relas who hadn't left his seat near the Sarel's fire since I fell into the darkest places of my mind, of Darien's mind.
I suppose I should try to resolve Darien's promises before concerning myself with my own.
I flutter down and form back into myself to step up behind Relas, "Father," He whips around in surprise, "I have time now to... go on that hunt we talked about."
He stares for a moment before nodding with a set brow, "Yes, I'll pack up immediately."
I nod to the man, guilt in my chest for deceiving him, "We must leave, and soon." I look around out of the corner of my eye to check if Wynne was still around, if any of them remain.
He notices and nods in slight understanding, "I heard the fight, give me a few minutes." Relas walks over to a small tent to the side of Zathrian's, entering it as I follow and stand guard.
I feel a rush of anxiety as I find myself resorting to my old ways of observation, now that Darien's soul has left his body... my body. I watch gestures and stances, eyes and words, noticing a great many details even without Darien's mastery of survival.
"Alright, now I hope you know where we're going."
I turn to see Relas in full Dalish Hardened Leather armor, armed with a short and longsword, both Dalish Ironbark, very fine craftsmanship. I blink at him, "Wait, you don't know where to go?" I ask in disbelief.
He grinds his teeth, "Well, I have a lead, but its going to be a long shot."
"You know how I am with a Bor'assan." I comment as we start are way towards the camp's edge.
He laughs quite loudly and I cringe, flashing my sight around to check if anyone notices, "Yeah, I do, Elgar'assan."
I smile impulsively at the sentiment, but then it drops as I remind myself that he thinks I'm his son.
"So, where did you learn about all this magic stuff Da'len?"
I look over at him and raise an eyebrow, slightly confused, "What do you mean?"
He looks directly at me and for the life of me I can't understand the look he gives my way, "Nothing, nothing. My contact said that our... falon was traveling west towards Redcliff, but that was months ago."
I frown, "Months? Relas its been years! Why would she be still in Ferelden?"
He glares at me and I shrink away with a cringe at revealing slightly too much.
"Abelas." I quickly apologize.
He shakes his head to me as we reach Mithra's post.
"Ah, Relas, finally leaving us?" She asks, eyes calm, stance casual.
Relas smiles with a hum, "Yes, Darien and I have some personal business we need to take care of outside the clan.
She looks to me and I look right back at her, we stare at one-another for more than a few seconds, I start to wonder if she'll let us leave when she sighs, "Well, then I suppose we will see you when you return."
If we return.
"That we will Mithra, if we are able." Relas replies in kind.
She pulls her guards away with a simple hand gesture and we are free to leave.
"Tell Zathrian that we will return when we can." I say to her.
She raises an eyebrow, "The Keeper left in the night."
I stop and we both look at her in question, "Wait, what?" I ask.
She nods, "Yes, Zathrian left last night, went into the Forest."
I watch her knowingly.
She blinks at me, "Y-you know why?" The other hunters look at us as her stance changes to an alert one. "Tell us, what is Zathrian doing? I do not wish to go behind his back, but his behavior has been strange and I fear for his life."
Relas groans at the delay, but I wave for him to go on ahead as I try to explain what I would know, "I think he has something to do with the curse, and he is resolving what issue he has."
Mithra sighs, "I feared it was the case, I thank you for telling me, at least I can rest knowing Zathrian is doing what he thinks is right."
I nod and quickly turn, leaving the camp.
What HE thinks is right, yes of course. What's right for the clan? No. Not in the slightest.
I stay close behind Relas as we walk the trail only the Dalish would know is even there. Shrubs and branches covering the warn ground and leading us to swing from branches to jump up into the trees themselves. I pause as I nearly slip on a branch from stepping in the wrong area. My heart jumps as I look down to notice we were twenty feet off the ground.
I'm not Darien anymore; I have to be more careful.
Taking my foot off the stripped bark I take a breathe and leap, catching a hand on each of the branches as I follow Relas' path back to the forest floor, wondering if I made a mistake by taking this path. I land and have to roll to break my fall, catching my arm on a rock, bruising it. "Ah!" The pain jogs my thoughts and I close my eyes in sorrow at leaving Sis- Morrigan where she was. "Abelas, ma vhenan." I whisper as I pick myself up and hold my tears back from having to leave yet another life of mine behind, remembering that night...
Sunlight breaks through the canopies high above the shadowed site, illuminating a skin and hide tent covering a sleeping duo, one death, one life. One without fear, but blinded by existence, another lost and broken from his path. Darien's fingers grasp her wrists and pull her from me, my will pushing her away as I think about what to do next. My mind cracking under the pressure of the idea that I changed everything with two choices from my past. "No." I say with finality as I step from our tent and toss on my robes, feeling them enhance my powers. I sigh at the feeling and run a hand down my face as I look at the world with opened eyes for the first time in a while.
I'd forgotten almost everything with Darien in my head, the paths, the deaths, what was necessary and unnecessary.
I shake my head as I feel myself fall to my knees and hold my head, the experiences I masked from my past nearly cracking my mind as they return. I silently sob for all the people I let die, have killed, had left, and... and I can't stop. I try to but I can't stop remembering everything. On my tongue are apologies that will never reach the ears of those I had wronged. I look down at my own hands, mentally, remembering every crack and line there. Then I look down at Dariens and I'm just... I'm shaking. I'm lost, shaking, I feel freezing, time shuddering around me as I try and just- I run. I run and stumble, trying to get away as fast as I can from her before I lose myself...
An hour later I make it back to that pool of water where I fell. I pause at the shore, panting at how stressful the sprint had been on Darien's body, but I don't feel the pain. I don't feel his legs wobbling, his lungs burning, I feel dead. I take a moment to let my new platform rest, knowing that it would die if I ran any further. I take the time to look at him through the reflected moonlight of the smooth pond. I open his mouth in worry as I look at his eyes, his skin, the tatoos marking him as one of the Dalish. I recognize them as ones of the Dread Wolf. I ask myself why he would choose such a trickster as a way to mark himself and I remember what he remembers, that night.
I remember that he met a wolf that spared his life during a dangerous hunt the week before he became an adult. He decided it was the Fen'harel and chose to honor him for it.
I blink in surprise and confusion as the memory dies, before remembering where I was and shuddering at feeling unclean. Feeling so lost and broken, pain, fear, death upon death, I just- I jump into the pool and let Darien's body struggle as it drifts into the dark abyss. I think about my own lives in that instant of suffocation, they flash before my mind as I remember David and my mother. My friends Terry, Dell, and Mark. The forest where I died. The park where I woke up. Liara. Neril. Rila. Ardania. Mein. Nihlus. Deran. I feel everything in an instant. I feel... I feel like myself as I find Shepard and join the battle against the Reapers. I can't fathom being any other place as I sacrifice more than everything to end it all... and survive. I survived.
I gasp awake and choke out the water in my lungs, tossing it out as I roll over, coughing as it pours out with my last meal. I throw up the water and shudder as I stare at the ground in shock. "My god..." I breathe as I finally... I sit up and run my hands over mu face, feeling scars I know happened but weren't there. I start to panic again before I touch my ears and realize what, or really who I am. "Oh..." I sigh as I start to remember why I was kneeling at the edge of a pond in the middle of a forest. "Fe- Fe" I shake my head and try to word what my mind screams, "Fenaral. No no. Fen-" My tongue twists and turns trying to say something I myself have never tried before. "Ffffeeennn Harrrelll." I draw it out as I struggle to search my mind for a time I actually ever said that phrase. Clearing my throat I remember my curiousity back in 2010 about the Elvhen and open my mouth, "Fen'harel." I whisper.
A terrifying growl appears in my ears and a shiver shoots up my spine as I turn to see two burning eyes of a wolf staring at me.
I want to fight, I have no reason not to be able to take the beast on and kill it, but... my new body doesn't move. The lack of experience with near-death confusing its reflexes into panic and paralysis. I scream for it to react and it doesn't move. So we stay there, for minutes, as Darien's body reconnects with my mind and stops panicking. "Hello." I say firmly.
The wolf stops growling at the strange elf kneeling before it.
I stand up, resolve and fear gone from my bones and body, taking my staff from my pack near the shore and pointing at the wolf, "Attack and I will be forced to kill you." I threaten without reservation.
It licks its lips and tilts its head in curiosity as I step forwards. "Hello Dread Wolf." I whisper as I place a heavy hand on the wolf's head.
He pushes it out of his grasp and narrows his eyes at me.
"I want to have a question answered." I demand more than ask.
He growls at me in fury and I refuse to flinch.
I've faced down the Harbinger of a galactic extinction, one wolf won't intimidate me.
I remind myself that that was in a separate life and that Darien's body could very well freeze up when I command it to kill as if on instinct.
The wolf of many ages watches me for a moment before sitting without any reaction, simply watching me with calm eyes, respectful eyes.
I watch him for but a second before tapping the ground with my unfinished staff and focusing on my person, my platform which I now understand this reality. I shift my own reality and find myself in my wolf form once again, sitting to mirror the Dread Wolf perfectly.
He seems to enjoy the effort and smiles.
I mirror it in kind.
He notices and turns away, quietly stepping each paw across the ground without making a print.
I watch it and attempt the same, finding my steps a bit heavier than his own. I huff in frustration and he takes off in a sprint. I growl and sprint after...
For the next hour I chase the Dread Wolf, hunting him through the forest of his creation. I leap over branches and dive around rocks, knowing every step would either bring me to a reward or my death. He leads me into a cave and through a small hole in the wall that I can barely get through, my hind legs struggling to squeeze into it. Entering his lair I find him resting comfortingly on a bedroll. My exhaustion catches up with my minds and I stumble, falling out of wolf form and panting on all fours.
He nudges his wet nose against my head and I look up to see him drop something from his mouth to clang against the stone floor and roll before stopping in front of me.
I take a deep breath and pick it up. The ring was made of pure obsidian with four crystals smelted into the dark stone at specific intervals. I touch one and it feels... familiar. I close my eyes and see a sleeping witch where I left her. I realize the significance and touch the next, feeling Erianne's presence. I hold the third and frown as I feel it empty, no, not empty, just... weak. The same is with the fourth. "Why?" I ask without opening my eyes.
A sentence, spoken with a voice both ancient yet new, powerful yet staggering, opens my eyes, "They are too far from our presence. You have the gifts of a true person of Elvhenan, a Drifter, go now and use this ring to find what it is you seek in this life."
The only thing I remember about the next three hours is a strange mist clouding my thoughts as I chased after the wolf again. This time we arrived back at Morrigan's tent and I thanked him as he disappeared from sight once again, for opening my eyes to my future...
"Darien, snap out of it son."
I blink out of my memories and look to my left at Relas. We'd walked down the road for some time before stepping off the path towards Lothering and setting camp for the night. "Sorry, I was lost in thought."
He smiles and takes another bite of his dried meat, "Thinking about them, weren't you?"
I pause in my stirring of the black kettle as the fire sparks and crackles under a row of concentrated Deathroot I'm brewing at the same time to save firewood. "I just worry that they won't find Witherfang." I half-lie as I tap one flask of extract to check its consistency.
Hmm, needs to boil down a bit more.
Relas nods slowly in understanding, "They'll get it done. I have no doubt in their ability."
"I do." I sigh and shake off my thoughts and stand up, "The stew is almost done, just take it off the fire in then minutes or so."
He looks up at me in question and I avoid his gaze.
"I just need a moment." He doesn't stop me as I walk across the clearing and into the brush there, taking out the ring Fen'harel gave me and touching Morrigan's crystal.
I see her flying across the sky, watching the forest below for... something.
She's searching.
I wonder for what or who, when she dives down, seeing something I didn't at first. A camp fire. She flies over the head of a-
Oh fuck!
I turn around to see the Raven bolting for my direction. I grit my teeth and hold my ground, casting a reflection barrier around me as she dives into a roll and lands on her feet, scowl on her face. She points a finger at me in accusation, "HOW DARE YOU!" Her eyes glow with anger and pain. She steps forwards when I don't respond. She pulses a mindblast, shattering my barrier and trying to claw at my face with her sharp nails.
I grab her wrists and hold her away from scaring me anymore then I deserve. She gets two slices across my left cheek and kicks my knee out. I stagger back, letting her go to regain my balance. She tosses a winter's grasp at me and I flash a pulse of fireball to counter it, shattering it in a loud explosion of water that flies over our heads.
She runs at me and throws another punch, I let it connect with my stomach as it rains around us. I look up at her as we stop there, watching each other as it pours. One instant we're staring at each other, her anger and murderous on me, mine stoic and knowing on hers. In the next our lips are on each other's once again, the rain now forgotten as we painfully press against our own frustrations. I hold her to me and she punches my chest to push me off, I don't let her. She tries to claw at my face again and I grab her wrists, pushing her against a tree as flames lick my palms. She gasps at the sharp heat that shocks her out of her fury for only a moment.
"I don't want to hurt you, stand down." I growl out before letting her go, turning away to retrieve my staff from where I dropped it. The soaked ground chills as frost forms around my ankles.
"NO!" She shouts.
I turn and close my eyes, cracking open the door to flash a pulse of fade energy around me, blasting a wave of the misty eerie power through her spell, shattering it apart and leaving her stunned and sapped of her mana as the snow falls around us. The wave continues far further than I anticipated and I see the campfire blow out, the site tossed apart as the wave even knocks Relas on his ass.
Holy...
I quickly refocus and take the moment of pause to retrieve her staff as well, "I do not wish to give you more heartache, but I have to leave." I say to her with determination.
She pants in exhaustion as I calmly step up to her, her eyes widen as she sees how stoic my expression is.
She's never truly seen me before, always confused within Darien and now... she looks fearful of what I have become in my old age.
"There's something I have to do, a path I have to take that does not involve you Sister, does not involve Erianne, Alistair, not even the Blight."
Her eyes narrow at me and she tries to catch her breath as I come face to face with her, our noses nearly touching.
I palm her cheek and smile weakly at her, tears in my eyes, "I love you Morrigan, but we cannot be together. It would kill me if you were harmed because we were..." I frown in determination as the danger of Relas' fast approach nags in the back of my mind. My tears die and so does my emotions as I hold myself together with nearly half an age of experience in the insanity of reality.
She stares at me quietly, completely confused at the shocking shift of my expressions.
I nod to her and reach into her front left inner robes, just under her breast to retrieve what she would have given me anyways. "I will keep this with me, so you will know to always find me." I take the black banded ring and place it on my right hand ring finger.
She stares at me in shock at the sentiment.
"Now go. Alistair should be close to Witherfang now, you must stop him from killing her."
She blinks at me in so much discontent and frustrated confusion, but I don't have time to explain.
I feel Relas barely ten feet behind us, "Go, now, before you meet Darien's father."
She swallows and her golden eyes dart to just beyond me in surprise. "Alright, Brother. I- I will see you...?"
I shake my head sadly as I hand her back her staff, "You won't."
I turn back to address Relas as She flies off over his head. He dives out of the way as she squawks back at me her goodbye. "By the Creators!" He yells from the ground as I hold out a hand to help him back up, "Thanks, but what the Dread Wolf was all that about!"
I smile at him as we walk back to our wrecked campsite, "Sibling rivalry."
He looks at me with confusion that I don't answer as I investigate the overturned remains of our supper and the shattered flasks of deathroot.
Damn it, I've really got to watch my connection to the Fade... I barely cracked open the door, what would I do if I threw it open? Would that tear open the Veil or just kill me?
I shake my head at the thought and groan as I find my Alembic shattered against a nearby rock, "Fucking hell..."
Cassandra scowls at Varric, "You told me that Darien stayed with the Warden for the entire Blight. What is this then? Does he return? Or are you lying?"
Varric frowns back, "We're talking about the Guardian Seeker. Without Darien, Dylan was finally able to remember himself and chose to leave. I didn't lie about Darien either, you just have to be patient."
Cassandra shakes her head, "Why? Why can't you simply tell me what the Guardian is? Why do I have to hear his entire life story?"
Varric shakes his head, "I made a promise, once you hear me out she said you'll know where to find him."
"Who is 'she'?"
Varric closes his mouth, shutting himself up for the first time in over ten years.
Cassandra narrows her eyes at the Dwarven storyteller. "Who told you to hold information from me Varric?"
He looks at his lap, conflicted.
"Tell me Varric and I can protect you." The Seeker offers.
Varric looks up at her and sighs, "Alright, Cyna. Her name is Cyna."
"Cyna?" Cassandra's eyes light up, "As in Magistrate Cynathron?"
He nods.
"By the Maker..." She breathes, watching Varric in surprise. "I must apologize Varric, if I had known..." She stops herself, "Wait... how do you know the Archon of the Imperium's daughter?"
He shakes his head, "Oh, no, I'm not telling you that, at least not until you know the Guardian's whole story."
She looks at him for a moment, thinking how she'll already be here for at least another day or so, she had time. "Fine, Varric I might have reservations for how... insane all this sounds, but I'll listen."
He nods in understanding, "I hoped I'd never have to tell this story, but, now I wish I did, then maybe..."
She stops him, "You couldn't have known what would've happened Varric."
As if on cue, an explosion resounds off the outer walls of the estate, cracking the windows but not shattering them.
Both of them look up in worry as a soldier steps in to hand Cassandra a note. She reads it and frowns.
"How much time?" Varric asks worriedly.
She looks at him, "We have perhaps until midnight before they arrive."
"Oh, perfect." He huffs. "I'd better hurry up then."
She dismisses the soldier, "Yes you should, we still have to discuss the Champion after this."
A/N And Dylan is now properly himself for the first time since he arrived in the Dragon Age Universe. :) But unfortunately with that knowledge, he has to leave on a quest to resolve old issues and find out what it truly means to be the Drifter...
And I just love how this sounds btw, "I hunt through the Insanity of Reality." :) so thats why its the title, not because anyone's insane or anything.
Tell me how I did! Private Message me directly or just leave a Review to let other readers know if this story is worth it.
And until next time... have a wonderful day.
~BlackenedAsh24
