Okay, I confess... when I was writing through this part of the story I just plain forgot to add the contents of this chapter, and by that time I couldn't fit them into an existing chapter without sounding really random. So with that in mind, think of this as a bonus chapter. Enjoy!


As before, Endrin received more than a few odd stares as she made her way through the alienage. If the City Elves weren't looking at her vallaslin covered face, then they were eyeing the longbow across her back. None of the elves spoke to her as she passed through their city within a city, they only stopped and stared, and although it made her a bit uncomfortable, Endrin didn't mind too badly. Her distant, city-dwelling, kin weren't so much being hostile as they were overly curious, and from what Kylae had told her about an elf's life in the city, Endrin knew they were nothing like her. The mere thought of carrying a weapon to a City Elf was almost unthinkable, and Endrin had carried her bow for so long it was more like an extension of herself.

Endrin stopped in front of the door to Kylae's house, wondering if she should knock or just go inside. She had been invited after all, and this was likely going to be her new home for at least a few days. But it still wasn't her house. Endrin knocked, and only a few seconds later the door was opened by the happiest looking Kylae that Endrin had ever seen.

"Lethallan!" Kylae said, "C'mon in."

Endrin did just that. She'd only been inside Kylae's house once before, when the two of them had climbed over the alienage wall and snuck in under cover of night, and now there was a distinctly more welcoming feel to the house. Small wonder considering everything that had recently happened, the Tevinter slavers finally dead or otherwise dealt with, Cyrion being found alive, and Kylae once again having returned home. Cyrion himself sat at the table in the small main room of the house with a bowl of some sort of food in front of him. He looked severely more emaciated since the last time Endrin had seen him months earlier. Shianni was there as well, and Endrin briefly wondered if she lived there as well. Like Kylae, Shianni was still wearing her borrowed armor, and had Kylae's old daggers sheathed at her side.

"Alright father!" Kylae said, plainly excited about something. "Endrin's here now! Show me!"

Endrin arched an eyebrow at her friend. "What's going on?" She asked, she'd never seen Kylae look so happy or excited.

"When I came back from the shem's place, father said that he had a special gift for me, something that belonged to my mother. I said that I wanted to wait till you got here… and here you are!" Kylae answered.

Cyrion stood up from where he sat and picked up a hammer that had been resting on the floor at his feet. With a secretive smile he moved to one of the walls, then knelt and began rapping on the floorboards with his knuckles. After finding one that sounded hallow when knocked on, Cyrion raised the hammer and began his assault on the wooden boards. Kylae and Endrin both watched with surprise, while Shianni only chuckled to herself. It didn't take long for Cyrion to beat a hole in the floor, and then he reached inside and came back up with something wrapped in black cloth.

"Your mother wanted to have this when you were ready for it." Cyrion said as he crossed the room to his daughter and handed her the wrapped bundle. "I would have given it to you when you left to become a Warden, but I wasn't really given much of a chance. And now you've returned, and you've saved us all! I can think of no better time to give it to you."

Kylae's eyes were the size of saucers as she accepted it, and Endrin could see that her hands shook as she began to unwrap the years old cloth with a certain reverence. In a few more seconds, both Kylae and Endrin were staring down at another dar'misu, curved like Kylae's other daggers, but slightly longer. The dagger itself was a pale white color, the same shade as the Blood Dragon Armor and Faith's Edge… dragonbone! Kylae ran the fingers of one hand down the flat of the blade, and gently rubbed the leather wrapped hilt. Finally she took the dagger in hand and let the cloth fall to the floor.

"This…" Kylae said quietly. "This belonged to mother?"

Cyrion nodded. "Adaia was the last person to wield it, but the history of that dagger goes back for centuries, all the way to the Dales. It was forged to fight against the shems that had attacked us. Since then it has been passed on from one generation to the next. Your mother used against the Orlesians while she was with the Night Elves, and she continued to use it afterwards in her one woman war for the alienage."

Kylae touched the blade again with her other hand, and gently ran her thumb along the edge of the dar'misu. It was still every bit as sharp as the day it had been created. "What is its name?" She said, her voice was still a near-whisper.

"The Fang of Fen'Harel." Cyrion answered.

"It's beautiful!" Kylae whispered, then she said louder, "Beautiful and deadly… jus' like me." She cast a sideways glance at Endrin, who started chuckling.

Without Endrin even asking, Kylae laid the dar'misu across both hands and offered it to Endrin. The Dalish accepted the blade and held it up into the light coming in through a window to better analyze it. "I've never known the Elvhen to craft anything from dragonbone!" She said, and handed the weapon back to Kylae. "You must be honored to have such a weapon."

"I am!" Kylae said, grinning widely again. Then she untied one of her sabertooth daggers from her belt and held it out to Endrin. "That's yours now ma lethallan. I don't need it anymore, and you never know when you could use a good dagger."

"Ma serannas." Endrin said, touched by the gift. She'd never known Kylae to gift anyone with anything before.


"So," Kylae said as she next to Endrin on the steps of the house. "Now that ya known me for a while, an' you seen the alienage and the elves that live in it, whaddaya think 'bout us now?"

"Honestly?" Endrin asked, smiling mischievously.

"Course honestly!" Kylae grinned, "Ya think I want ya to just flat out lie to me?"

"With you I'm never quite sure." Endrin laughed. "But seriously, I think that we Dalish are wrong about you. We've always thought that you choose to live here and that you're basically the human's slaves. Our Keepers and Hahren teach us to pity you City Elves."

Kylae scowled. "Well that certainly 'xplains why the two of us got off to such a rocky start… Also 'xplains why you're the only Dalish I like."

"I'm honored."

The scowl disappeared to be replaced by a grin. "Course you are!"

Kylae pulled out Fang again and began inspecting and analyzing the blade. In the brief time that she'd owned the dagger she'd barely been able to keep her eyes off of it. Endrin knew that Kylae would be more or less unreachable until she was done with the dagger, so she turned her eyes to the Vhenadahl. Kylae had already told her that it was meant to remind the elves of their heritage, so Endrin allowed the tree to do just that for herself and let her mind wander back to Brecilian Forest and the Sabrae. She wasn't sure how long the two of them were both lost in their own thoughts before Endrin was distracted by the clinking of plate armor and she glanced down from the tree to see Otto walk by. The templar acted as if he didn't see the two elves sitting on the doorstep, which was probably the truth of matter as he was nearly blind.

"Kylae." Endrin said, but her city dwelling friend was still lost in the dagger, or maybe she was thinking about her mother, Endrin couldn't be sure. "Kylae." She said again.

"Huh? What?" Kylae said, finally looking up from the weapon.

"I have to ask, what is it with you and Otto?"

"Whaddaya mean?" Kylae asked innocently.

Endrin rolled her eyes. "Very funny, Kylae… You know what I'm talking about! Up till now the only human you haven't completely despised on sight is Eebon... and maybe Tylis, but the first thing you did when you saw Otto was to hug him. And I wasn't the only one who was confused when you'd go along with what he said without even putting up an argument."

Kylae feigned confusion for a few seconds before her face broke into another wide grin. "That's 'cause Otto ain't a shem."

"He sure looks like one to me."

Kylae lightly slapped Endrin across the back of her head, "You blind lethallan? Can't ya see he's an elf? Sure he's a really big elf, and he's got rounded ears, but he's an elf alright!"

Endrin only arched a single eyebrow and continued to stare at Kylae.

"Alright, alright." Kylae finally said. "The truth is that I jus' don't think of him as a shem. He showed up 'bout eight or nine years ago, right 'bout the time my mother disappeared. None of us knew why he'd been sent here, an' all he'd ever say is that his superiors had stationed him here in the alienage… funny thing is that we never had no templars here b'fore. After I got to know 'im a bit I started thinkin' maybe it was 'cause he was blind and they wanted 'im to quit and retire... but he never did!

"At first we all avoided him 'cause he's a big guy with thick armor an' a mace, but after a while we got the message that he wasn't goin' nowhere. I remember the first time I ever talked to 'im… We'd run outta food, and I was out here with Shianni an' Soris and I think that he musta heard us complainin' 'bout how hungry we were 'cause next thing I know he's standin' there in front of us and gives us his own food. When I told father 'bout it, he starts lecturing me about how I shouldn't be talkin' to Otto and to stay away from him."

Endrin felt her mischievous smile return. "So you did the opposite, didn't you?"

"Hey, what kind of daughter do you think I am?" Kylae said, pretending to be offended, then she smiled mischievously herself. "Of course I did… I started talkin' to 'im almost every day. He's got some really good stories, and he was the first human who jus' wanted to be my friend without wanting anything from me, or any other elf." Kylae stopped and smiled at the memory. "He's a good man. An' that's something you'll probably never hear me say 'bout another human."

"What about Eebon?"

Kylae playfully slapped Endrin across the head again.