A/N: After quite a bit of thought I decided simply to cut the game's epilogue. There just didn't seem to be anything left to say about the Blight, though if there are questions people have about the fates of certain characters in the games I would be willing to post a short explanation of what happened to them.

Other than that, Awakening will largely be in the form of an extended epilogue, but while it will still be told in the same general style as the main story it is not part of it. The story being told by the main character ended with the Archdemon's death. This is simply extra material, a post-story interlude (epilude?) if you will.

Also, the prologue to Dragon Age II is now posted as a seperate story entitled The Road to Hell. As always all feedback is welcome.

Awakening Part 1

We had been traveling for nearly a week since leaving Denerim before Vigil's Keep could be seen in the distance. After three months of living in all the luxury that a teyrn of Gwarren (a position that I had actually strenuously objected to on philosophical grounds) could enjoy, without electricity and indoor plumbing unfortunately, traveling again was horrible. The armor was uncomfortable and my coat was finally too thin to actually expect to keep me warm anymore.

Commander Harrowmont, newly appointed head of the Grey Wardens in Fereldan, and Mhairi seemed perfectly comfortable, as did most of the soldiers who were following us. Thankfully Solona was just as cold and miserable as I was. Good to know someone else hated this whole war business.

As we got closer there were the sounds of battle from inside. That was a bit of a shock since the Darkspawn weren't supposed to attack for another 3 months, if I had done the math right anyway.

Harrowmont didn't hesitate however, ordering the soldiers to fan out and get ready for combat. The crossbowmen advanced first, loosely spread out to fire on anything that tried to attack us. Behind them came the pikemen, their main weapons held upright to make marching easier. To either side were lighter infantry forces, mainly wearing leather and carrying spears and small shields.

Confirmation of an attack came as a dozen genlocks charged from the gates after a fleeing soldier. Without waiting for orders the crossbowmen shot down the darkspawn. The soldiers stopped as the sounds behind him ceased, then suddenly realized what was going on and stood to attention.

Harrowmont marched up to him and demanded, "What is going on?"

The soldier shook his head. "I don't know. It's like they came out of nowhere. I woke up to hear screams and ran outside and saw people dying. I tried to get out, but those things came after me."

Harrowmont barely kept contempt out of his voice as he said, "So you deserted at the first sign of a fight. Turn around, you're going to lead us back in." The soldier gulped, but seeing the soldiers behind Harrowmont he nodded and started back in.

As we began to move forward Harrowmont ordered, "Pikemen, draw swords." Each man carefully set their weapon down and drew their short swords and readied their shields. We advanced into the outer courtyard of the castle to find a battle going on. Several dozen soldiers were battling against over twice times their number in darkspawn.

If the soldiers had had time to get into a formation the battle would have been as good as theirs, but they were spread out and each was fighting multiple opponents. Our soldiers moved up in orderly lines, the crossbowmen falling back after firing a volley of bolts into groups of darkspawn.

An ogre turned and charged at us, but even as the soldiers prepared to surround it Solona raised a slightly bloodied hand, then brought the ogre down. Her face tightened a little as she exerted her power to hold it down, but compared to other displays of power she had accomplished over the Blight this was very nearly tame. Two soldiers started chopping the ogre's head off, while the others drove the darkspawn back up against the inner walls of the castle. Small pockets of darkspawn were cut off from the main body, then cut down as they were pressed to close to raise their weapons.

The last group of monsters were bunched close together, and with another gesture Solona tossed a fireball into their midst. The few who survived were destroyed by our soldiers.

As the last fell Harrowmont ordered the troops to form up into a line again and they began up the stairs to the fragile inner gate, years of being neglected by Howe had taken a toll on the castle's defenses. As the first rank of soldiers reached the top of the stairs the gate exploded outward, splinters killing twelve men and injuring twenty more.

From inside rushed thirty hurlocks, and behind them was a genlock emissary. The emissary cackled through the evening air and started to cast another spell, but he was blasted down by a spell from Solona. The hurlocks met the lines of soldiers with abandon, and killed six soldiers from the disrupted front line before they were struck down by the next row. Apart from those monsters the courtyard was deserted. To our right came the sounds of more fighting and Harrowmont ordered twenty soldiers to deal with whatever was still outside. The remaining thirty soldiers followed us into the Keep itself.

The keep's interior looked abandoned. There were bodies piled up on the stairs where the darkspawn had slaughtered the castle's staff and defenders. Our first site of a live person was upon reaching an interior gate where a blonde mage was blasting a group of darkspawn with an ice spell.

He turned as we entered and called to Solona, "Hey I recognize you from the circle." He stopped and looked at the bodies of a pair of Templars at his feet and said, "I know this probably looks bad, but I didn't kill them. I'm not broken up about it though to be honest. Biff there made the funniest gurgle when the darkspawn killed him."

Solona answered, "And who are you exactly?"

He looked hurt and answered, "You don't remember me? I'm Anders, wanted apostate. They were taking me back to the Circle. They said it would be a short rest, and now they are dead."

Before Solona could answer Harrowmont said, "I don't really care who you are, but having another mage with us would be a major boost in our power."

Anders brightened up. "So you believe me then? Great, now I guess I can either help you with the darkspawn, or you can just let me go. They'll send more Templars eventually, they always do."

They talked a short while longer while I started to think about Anders. There was something familiar about him, something important that I couldn't quite remember. Suddenly however it all became clear and I cleared my throat.

They stopped and Anders asked, "Yes?"

I swallowed and said, "Solona, kill him."

All three stared at me and Anders said in a loud voice, "Kill me? I told you I didn't do anything to these men."

I nodded, "I know that, but it is irrelevant." I looked back at Solona and said again, "Kill him."

She nodded and raised one hand in Anders's direction. He drew up his and started to say something before Harrowmont said, "Belay that order Warden Amell. This mage obviously has power, and the Chancellor apparently won't give us an actual reason."

As we argued Anders tried to sneak off, but Solona grabbed him with blood magic and held him while we argued.

I glared at Harrowmont, then added, "Consider my order a Royal Command."

Harrowmont shot back, "Then I Conscript him into the Grey Wardens. After this we will need as many Wardens as possible."

I stood firm and answered, "Then consider the Rite of Conscription suspended until further notice."

"You can't do that," Harrowmont roared at me.

His argument was rendered moot however when Solona finally answered, "Yes sir." She turned back to Anders and with a motion she severed a blood vessel running to his brain. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Harrowmont stared at the corpse in anger then said, "I will be informing King Alistair of this, mark my words."

I glared down at him and answered, "The King granted me Royal Authority within the arling of Amaranthine, until that is rescinded I hold supreme power here Harrowmont, don't forget that."

The gate in the entranceway however was down and the door leading to the winch was locked, which mattered for all of the four seconds it took Solona to blast the door and its barricade out of the way with a concentrated cone of flames. A small group of soldiers ran up to raise the gate, never was sure why the gate winch was on the outside to be honest, and as it did so another group of darkspawn charged out from behind it.

They were rapidly cut down by our soldiers who then began down the hallway into the main portion of the Keep. Past a short hallway led into a room with stairs each side, and a back portion that was currently home to four darkspawn archers. They shot three soldiers before crossbows slew them in turn.

Room after room were cleared of darkspawn through the disciplined swordsmanship of our soldiers and liberal use of crossbows and Solona's magic. Our first encounter with Warden survivors inside the castle was a knight named Rowland, but he was too far gone to give any information.

Our battle ultimately led us to the battlements of the Keep where a heavily armored talking hurlock was telling a man on his knees, "You think you know our kind human? That will soon change."

Before the man could answer the crossbowmen fired. Three of the darkspawn surrounding the talking monster fell under the quarrels, but the talking creature drew weapons and charged, followed by sixteen of his fellows. They were on us before another volley could be fired. Most of the darkspawn were slaughtered before they could swing their weapons, but the talking creature cut down four soldiers who faced him, but then was surrounded by soldiers stabbing and hitting him with their shields. Under the flurry of blows the single creature went down. It might have been more formidable than an average darkspawn, but a single warrior, no matter how skilled cannot stand before a group of trained soldiers.

As the monster fell the man it had been holding captive pulled himself up and said, "Chancellor, Commander I am glad you have arrived. The darkspawn attacked out of nowhere, almost as if they had come from the castle itself. They overwhelmed us before we knew what was going on. If you hadn't arrived when you did we would likely all be dead."

I left him and Harrowmont to discuss the situation and went to look down into the courtyard. The remainders of our soldiers had destroyed the darkspawn there and were putting barricades up in fronts of the destroyed gate and breaches in the outer walls.

As I watched them Solona came up beside me and whispered, "Why?"

I sighed and answered, "You wouldn't believe me."

She smiled a little and answered, "You might be surprised, I know you can see the future after all." I looked at her a bit startled and she smiled again, "Did you really think I was that stupid? Alim and I talked about why Alistair trusted your information so much many times, and a discussion the two of you had in the Deep Roads made me certain. We weren't deaf you know."

I looked away and said, "It's a bit more complicated than that, suffice it to say I can't see the future, I just have seen it, two years ago. Everything has kind of started to blur a little. I remember the general details, but I've been so focused on writing down chemistry, biology, and physics that I just haven't had time to really sort through any of that. But to answer your question, he would have started a war that killed tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands."

Her eyes widened and she said quietly, "I believe you."

It was three days before King Alistair arrived with a group of Templars he had met on the road, part of his tour of the entire Kingdom. Harrowmont and I both waited in silence, not having spoken the entire time. Alistair's entrance into the keep was subdued, but he quipped at us, "I seem to have missed the action, shame I miss killing darkspawn. It would have to be better than the banquets and paperwork I have to do." He quieted on seeing our expressions and said, "Okay something else is wrong."

Harrowmont spoke first, "I demand you relieve the Chancellor of all authority immediately. He has violated Fereldan law."

Alistair sighed and said, "William, would you please take the Knight Captain and show her the keep while I hear his side of this." I nodded and the pair of us left.

We didn't actually go anywhere, but she asked, "Did you come across a mage named Anders here?"

I nodded, "He's dead."

"Really?" she asked. "How?"

I looked away from her and admitted, "I ordered him executed."

"Oh, good riddance." She said a certain amount of satisfaction showing. "He'd escaped from us again and again, I probably would have petitioned to have him executed this time." Then she suddenly said, "That's what the disagreement is about isn't it."

I nodded again, but didn't say anything.

A short while passed until finally Harrowmont emerged from the chamber and Alistair motioned me inside." He shut the door and immediately yelled, "What were you thinking? Suspending the Rite of Conscription for an execution of an innocent man? Weren't you the one always going on about how the law had to be upheld?"

I looked down and said, "I'm sorry Alistair, but it had to be done. If you could have stopped the Blight by killing Loghain before he betrayed the King would you have?"

He sighed and said, "Of course, what's your point."

I said quietly, "Anders would have done the same thing. Ten years from now."

Alistair's anger evaporated and he said, "Oh..."

I nodded in defeat, "I didn't enjoy ordering it, but it had to be done. For the sake of the thousands who would die."

Alistair said finally, "Very well. I'll accept that. I doubt Harrowmont will like this though. He'll probably send a complaint to Weisshaupt over this."

I shrugged, "That's a problem then."

Alistair nodded, "Yes it is. I don't want my rule called into question over things that happen here."

I shook my head quickly, "That's not what I mean. The Wardens are independent of national control; they have a right to use violence outside the boundary of the state. That's a huge gap in national power. It needs to be closed."

Alistair sighed, "What would you have me do incorporate them into the army?"

"Yes," I answered immediately.

He seemed a bit surprised, but answered, "Well I can't and won't. The Wardens need to be rehabilitated in the country even now. Keep relations at least tolerable, understood?"

I nodded. Alistair sighed again and answered, "If it makes you feel any better I'll draw up a law allowing the Rite of Conscription to be denied in certain circumstances. I can't do more than that though."

"That will have to be enough for now then," I answered. Then remembered, "Before you go I have a law I need you to sign." I dug around in my pack and pulled out a roll of vellum and passed it over.

He took it and read, "The Civil Rights Act. What's in it?"

I said, "The law makes it illegal to discriminate against people of the country based on their species."

Alistair nodded and put it into his own pack. "I'll read over it and give you my answer sometime before I leave. Anything else?"

I shook my head, "Not yet."

Alistair signed the bill into law two days later, there would later be a more public signing in Denerim where Alistair made a speech about the sacrifices made by elves (who the law was pretty blatant about being directed to help) during the Blight. By the time he was finished no one in the Landsmeet was willing to criticize the move (publicly.)

Harrowmont was outraged by Alistair's decision, and naturally sent a message to Weisshaupt. It was the first in a long chain of strained decisions between the crown and the Wardens.

Mhairi tried to join the Wardens again, and for the third time I vetoed her membership.