A/N: I know I said that I wouldn't post anything for another few weeks, but my ADD mind just won't let this one - among others - go. I can't even concentrate on other things! T.T Anyways, here's another story to read, so enjoy!

The title means "My Promise/Oath."

All Elvhen used in this story goes to FenxShiral on AO3.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age. That honor goes to BioWare.

And yes, I am a sucker for Solavellan Hell. I acknowledge that fact. -.-'

"Hello" - talking

'Hello' - thinking

"Andaran Atishan" - Elvhen

Chapter 1

I sigh as I look to my alarm clock. 2 o'clock in the morning. Turning back to my laptop, I stare at the loading screen of Dragon Age: Inquisition. My previous five play-throughs were elven mages, but this load's Inquisitor is different. This time, I chose her to be an elven rogue. As it finishes loading, the face of my current Inquisitor stares back at me from the screen: Maia of Clan Lavellan. With pale skin dotted with freckles, white hair the color of freshly fallen snow styled in a ponytail, eyes the same shade as the winter sky and the vallas'lin of Mythal the same shade as her eyes branching across her forehead and under her eyes.

Sighing again, thinking it's about time to head to bed, I save my game and click to exit, then turn off my laptop. Standing up from my desk I grimace as my back protests at the action, the brace on my right leg picking up the slack of my weakened leg. Making sure I have my collapsible cane with me, I exit my bedroom and hobble down the hall till I come to the kitchen. Heading for the sink, I pick up a clean glass next to it, then for the pitcher of water that was filled earlier in the evening. After taking some pills for the pain, I look at my reflection from the kitchen window: 5'6" in height, pale, but not white, skin, light grey eyes with a ring of amber surrounding the pupil, and medium-brown hair with natural copper highlights. Pretty plain, in my eyes. I turn from the window as I think about my life up to this point.

I was six when I was hit by a car while vacationing in the UK with my parents and older brother. The next 6 months were spent going through surgeries, to repair my spine and surrounding muscles, and 2 years of physio-therapy to regain the use of my legs. Even now, almost twenty years later, I need to wear a brace for my weakened right leg and have my collapsible cane on hand. Not to mention that I have good days where I can walk without using the cane, and bad days where I am literally bed-bound for the majority of the day. Due to the accident and the bullying from my classmates who didn't understand why I needed the cane, I have no friends, and so my social life is non-existent.

Another sigh leaves my lips as I finish the glass of water, then give it a quick clean before placing it on the towel-covered counter to dry.

Shuffling down the hallway, I notice a light from under the door of my room. On edge, I slowly creep towards the door and open it, peaking my head around to look into the room. Everything is as I had left it, with one exception: the laptop. The screen is on and glowing with an eerie, but familiar, green light.

"I'm pretty sure that I turned that off," I whisper and take another look around my room. Seeing nothing else out of place, I open the door fully and enter. Slowly, I walk towards my desk, my eyes on the laptop screen. My hand shaking, I reach to turn it off again, when a force seems to grip me. It feels like gravity has been multiplied by 10 around my body, and it's hard for me to breathe. Before I can pass out from lack of air, a violent jerking sensation pulls me forward. This is too much for my body to handle, and I gratefully fall unconscious.

I am awoken not by my alarm clock, but by a strange sensation in my left hand, and pain in my back. I am relieved to feel that I still have the brace on my leg. Coming to some more, I realize that I am not at home based on the facts that I am kneeling on the - stone - ground and that something cold is clamped around both of my wrists. I open my eyes, and what I see almost has me hyperventilating.

'This cannot be real!'

For what I am seeing is something that I have only seen from the screen of my laptop. I stare at my left hand, and the familiar green glow coming from the mark embedded in it. I gasp aloud as the mark flares up in pain. Through the pain I see the door in front of me open, and two familiar women enter.

The redhead in the hood, Leliana, remains in front of me while the dark-haired Cassandra stalks behind me. I can feel her bend down behind me as she sneers, "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now. The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you."

Okay, so far everything is like the game. So I do what I always did at this point in the game, and remain silent.

Cassandra walks in front of me and suddenly grabs my manacled wrists. "Explain this."

The mark flares and she releases my wrists from her grip.

"I can't," I say and it is the truth. While I know how it happened, I personally have no memories of it happening to me.

"What do you mean you can't?" Cassandra demands of me.

"I don't know what that is, or how it got there," I state as truthfully as I can.

She lunges at me. "You're lying!" she yells as she grabs the collar of the green tunic I'm wearing. 'When did my clothes change?'

Leliana pushes her off before she can hit me. "We need her Cassandra."

I channel my disbelief of being here into what I say next, "I'm confused." And I really am. I am confused on how I am here, in this world that is fantasy to me.

"Do you remember what happened. How this began?" Leliana asks, turning towards me.

I close my eyes as my head momentarily hurts, and a few images flow into my head. The fragments of what happened in the Fade.

"I remember running," I start, opening my eyes. "Things were chasing me, and then..." I pause as a woman seemingly made of light appears in my mind, "a woman?"

"A woman," Leliana parrots back.

"She reached out to me, but then..." I trail off as there is nothing else to say.

Cassandra turns toward Leliana, "Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take her to the rift."

Leliana turns to leave while Cassandra comes toward me to begin unshackling my wrists.

"What did happen?" I ask her as she then binds my wrists in rope, before hauling me to my feet. My back twinges, but nothing gives.

"It will be easier to show you," is all she says as she guides me out of the dungeon and up the steps.

When the doors of the Chantry open, I hiss in pain at the brightness assaulting my eyes and throw my hands up to shield them. When my eyes feel that they can handle the light, I lower my hands and stare. Even knowing what is out there does not prepare me for the enormity that is the Breach. It swirls in the sky above what used to be the Temple of Sacred Ashes, clouds ominous, every once in a while lightning flashing while Fade-touched rocks would occasionally fly out of it.

I continue to stare at the monstrosity in the sky as Cassandra speaks.

"We call it 'the Breach'. It's a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour." She turns to face me. "It's not the only such rift. Just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave."

I stick to the script, "An explosion can do that?" I ask her as I gaze away from the Breach to look to her.

Cassandra gives me a leveled gaze. "This one did. Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world."

At that point the Breach unleashes a torrent of energy, a roaring sound going off as it does so. Even knowing that it would happen, I am not prepared for the amount of pain when the mark in my hand flares up as well. I fall to my knees in agony and tuck my hands, as close as I can, to my stomach. I barely acknowledge Cassandra crouching in front of me.

"Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads... and it is killing you," she states. "It may be the key to stopping this, but there is't much time."

The mark finally calms and I give a breath in relief. I then sigh as I decide to skip some of the dialogue to get this over with. "I understand," I say to her.

The hope on Cassandra's face is kinda heart-wrenching. "Then you'll...?"

"I'll do what I can. Whatever it takes," I continue.

She gives me an undecipherable look before hauling me to my feet. It takes a moment for my right leg to take my weight, but when it does Cassandra grabs me by the back of my top and leads me through the village. Around us are tents and cabins, and unhappy villagers looking on. Some jeer at me, their words unknown to me from the wind and the sheer amount of them yelling. I do catch one slur, though, and it almost has me stopping in surprise.

"... Knife-ear!"

What. The. Fuck? I'm an elf? When did this happen, and how? I momentarily calm down from the winding panic enough to tune in to what Cassandra is saying, having spaced out on some of it from the surprise of my unexpected change in race.

"... of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry," she says as we exit Haven and walk down a path. "The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead. We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves. As she did."

We step through a set of gates and out onto a bridge, another set of gates on the other side leading towards the path to the Temple.

"Until the Breach is sealed," she steps in front of me, drawing her dagger as she does so from the small of her back. "There will be a trial. I can promise no more," she says as she grabs my bound hands and cuts the rope.

"Come. It is not far," she continues as she sheathes her dagger and starts heading for the other side of the bridge.

"Where are we going?" I ask her, rubbing my wrists to restore some feeling to them.

"Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach," she turns to some of the soldiers standing by the gate. "Open the gate! We are heading into the valley."

The path we take is full of barricades, carts and corpses. My nose wrinkles that they just left them there to rot. Cassandra must have seen the expression, for her face softens a bit as she says, "They will be gathered and given funeral rights when this is over." I nod in acknowledgement as we continue on the trail.

Halfway towards the next bridge, the Breach unleashes energy again. I scream as the mark flares as well, falling sideways into a snowdrift in agony. My back protests the motion, but, frankly, I don't give a damn at the moment about it. I can feel Cassandra at my side as the mark calms down, and she slowly helps me back to my feet.

Patting my shoulders she says, "The pulses are coming faster now," before moving on ahead of me. "The larger the Breach grows, the more rifts appear, the more demons we face."

Wanting to know if things were the same, I ask, "How did I survive the blast?"

"They said you... stepped out of a rift, then fell unconscious," she started, "They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was. Everything farther in the valley was laid waste, including the Temple of Sacred Ashes." We reach the second bridge when she says, "I suppose you'll see soon enough."

We start to cross the bridge towards the squad of soldiers who were to escort us, my body tensing for what's to come. Sure enough, halfway across the bridge, a large Fade-touched rock collides into the bridge where the soldiers were. The bridge collapses and Cassandra and I are sent tumbling to the frozen river below.

Picking myself up, I quickly assess my body. I ache in a few places and my back is starting to twinge in discomfort, but no other problems as far as I can tell. Cassandra and I look up from the debris of the bridge as another Fade-touched rock slams into the ice in front of us. Instead of shattering the ice, like we thought, the surface of impact turns black as a corpse-like being with elongated arms and huge clawed hands appears. It's wearing what looks to have robes at one time, now rags, with its drawn-up hood unable to cover its head entirely.

'So that's what a Shade looks like in real life.'

Drawing her blade and shield, Cassandra yells out, "Stay behind me!" before charging at the demon.

I stay where I am as I watch her, but look for any weapon to equip myself. Just then, a dark miasma starts to bubble in front of me. 'Shit.' As the demon attempts to form, I spot a pair of daggers laying on a crate near me. I also spot a bow and quiver, but it's too far to grab them in time, so I lunge for the daggers just as the Shade appears in a burst of Fade crystals. Grabbing the hilts of the weapons, I only have enough time to situate them in my hands and turn around before the demon is upon me.

I dodge the first strike of its clawed hands, running around it when it attacks again. This time I attempt to block and counter it. It works out as well as I had hoped. As in, while I successfully blocked its strike, my counter-attack didn't do that much damage.

It isn't long after that, that I am disarmed and splayed upon the ice, my back protesting big time. Sitting up with some difficulty, I see Cassandra, still fighting her demon, looking back at me with an expression of what could be fear on her face. Looking back at my foe, I see it lunging at me. Scared, I close my eyes as I bring my arms up in a feeble attempt at shielding myself.

"Look out!"

I hear the crackling of what could only be ice, then silence. When I don't feel the claws of the demon, I slowly bring my arms down, followed by opening my eyes. It takes a moment for my brain to compute what my eyes are seeing, but when it does all I can do is stare. For in front of me is the demon, frozen solid in a block of ice. Still staring at it like an idiot, the ice then shatters into millions of pieces, taking the demon with it.

I continue to gaze at where the demon was as Cassandra comes towards me, her sword still drawn.

"You're a mage!" she yells at me, as if I had deliberately withheld this from her.

"I... huh... wha?" are the only things I can stutter out. I am still trying to comprehend what had just happened. What I had done.

Seeing the surprise on my face, Cassandra lowers her sword. "You did not know?" she asks.

I look up at her, eyes wide in disbelief. She sighs as she sheathes her sword, then holds her hand out to me. Still in shock, I reach up to grasp it and she pulls me to my feet. I gasp in my pain as my back protests, and I stagger as my right leg almost gives out. Cassandra steadies me.

"Are you alright?" she asks in slight concern.

I grimace before answering, "My back. I think I landed on the ice too hard."

She rummages in her pouch and hands me a bottle. "Here," she says, "This will help until a healer can look at it." I wrinkle my nose as I open the bottle, but down it in one go. I gag at the taste as the elfroot potion goes down, and shudder in disgust.

Cassandra smirks at my reaction, but waits for the potion to work. Sure enough, the pain abates, and I am soon able to stand on my own without her assistance.

I walk back over to the broken crate that was on the bridge and reach for the bow and quiver, making sure that the bow was unbroken and the quiver full.

"Why didn't you grab those weapons before?" Cassandra asks me, walking towards me to see what I was doing.

"Not enough time to," I respond, testing the draw weight of the bow. Satisfied, I attach the quiver to my back and grip the bow with my left hand, as well as grab an empty pouch to attach to my belt. Turning to her, I continue, "The demon was nearly upon me after I grabbed the daggers, which were closer to me. It for sure would have attacked me before I was even close to the bow, let alone the quiver." She nods her head at my reasoning, before handing me more potions.

"Take these potions. Maker knows what we will face." she says. Oh, I have an idea what we'll be facing, but take them from her and place them into my newly acquired pouch. Nodding at her, we make our way up the slope off of the river.

"Where are all your soldiers?" I ask her. honestly curious. There has to be more than they portrayed in the game, so where are they?

"At the forward camp, or fighting," is her response. "We are on our own, for now."

At the apex of the slope, Cassandra looks down the other side and spots more demons. "There! Watch out!" she warns as she draws her sword and shield. "If we flank them, we may gain the advantage," she suggests and I nod in agreement.

I stay up high on the trail as she runs down to engage the two shades. Drawing an arrow and nocking it on the bow, I take aim at one of the shades that had tried to flank Cassandra, and fire. The arrow impacts the demon in the back of it's shoulder, and I quickly draw another as it turns towards me. Before it can take two steps toward me I release another arrow into it. This time in the head, and it lets out a wail as it dies, fading back into the ether, my two arrows clattering to the ground.

I jog to meet up with Cassandra, who had just finished off her shade, retrieving my arrows and checking on them. Fletching and head still good, I place the arrows back into the quiver.

"Good aim," Cassandra compliments, and I duck my head at the praise.

"I had a good teacher and friends to compete with," I say, and I mentally pause in shock as I follow her on another frozen stream towards some steps in the distance.

'That's not true. I had no friends growing up. Are these the memories of this body?'

Seeing my mood plummet, Cassandra drops the topic. Up ahead, near the foot of the stairs, there are more shades, and at the bend of the stairs there is a new demon. It glows a luminescent green as it floats in the air, like a ball of noxious gas with a head and arms.

Cassandra takes note of the new demon. "Up on the hill! It attacks from a distance!" Well, goodie for it; so do I.

I climb an embankment and take aim at it, before releasing an arrow. Surprisingly, the arrow hurts the ball of gas - wraith, it's called - as it hits. It lets out a scream of pain before releasing a beam of energy at me. 'Oh, Hell no! I am not letting that shit hit me!' I think as I am forced to roll to dodge it. Popping back onto my feet, I draw an arrow and fire before it can release another attack at me. The wraith screams again and explodes as it dies. Eww, not looking forward to retrieving those arrows.

We make our way up and over, and after a few more bouts with demons, we ascend a long set of stone steps.

"We're getting close to the rift. You can hear the fighting," Cassandra says, increasing her pace to get in front of me.

"Who's fighting?" I ask, starting to pant. I have never climbed more stairs in my life than I have today so far.

"You'll see soon. We must help them," is Cassandra's only response before she charges up the rest of the steps and into the sound of combat ahead.

I stay back to assess what's going on. There are four figures fighting off the shades. Two are your standard soldiers with one-handed swords slicing at their foes. But it's the other two that I look more closely at.

One is a dwarf, with strawberry blond hair and a nose that has obviously been broken more than once in the past. He wears a splendid red overcoat underneath a brown leather duster. The red overcoat is not latched all the way, exposing some of his chest, and the vast curls of chest hair that he has. His favored weapon, a crossbow, is shooting bolt after bolt into his enemies.

The other is an elf, and it takes all of my control not to stare at him. Damn. The game does not do his looks justice! With his head devoid of hair, and his eyes a deep stormy grey, Solas wears a long green sleeveless vest over a long-sleeved beige cotton tunic. His green pants are cropped at the knees and he wears his brown leather footwraps. He swings his staff around him, ice and lightning leaving it in arcs and beams.

I struggle not to blush, and shake my head before drawing an arrow to aim at a demon engaging with one of the soldiers. At the last minute, I notice a second demon sneaking up behind Solas, but within my sights.

"Look out!" I warn, before releasing my arrow. It slams into the side of the demon's head, just as Solas turns around to notice it. I see his eyes glance from the arrow to me, before re-engaging with his previous foe.

I remain back until the last demon is gone, before slinging my bow on my back and jogging towards them. Something in the rift shifts, and the next thing I know is that Solas has gripped my left wrist in his hand and jerks it forward, towards the rift.

"Quickly, before more come through!" he yells out, thrusting his hand, and mine, into the energy the rift is giving off. I feel something latch on - the rift - and I feel a sharp tug. Something different is felt - Solas' magic? - assisting me and I yank my hand back as the rift collapses in on itself, disappearing.

"What did you do?" I ask, looking at him. I know that he had assisted me, somehow, in closing this rift. I curl the fingers of my left hand into a fist.

"I did nothing," he says - liar - "The credit is yours."

"I closed that thing? How?" I ask, honestly curious. I want to know how the mark closes the rifts!

Solas crosses his hand behind his back. "Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake - and it seems I was correct."

"Meaning it could also close the Breach," Cassandra says, walking towards us.

Looking at her, Solas says, "Possibly." Turning back to me he remarks, "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

"Good to know!" says the dwarf, adjusting the gloves on his hands. "Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." He walks towards us, and I turn to fully face him.

"Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong." he introduces himself, the last part aimed at Cassandra with a wink. She scowls at him.

"That's a nice crossbow you have there," I smirk at him.

Varric glances back to the weapon strapped to his back. "Ah, isn't she? Bianca and I have been through a lot together."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Why Bianca, of all names?" He just chuckles at me.

"Well, I wanted to name her Mirabelle, but it was already taken. And she'll be great company in the valley."

Cassandra stalks towards the dwarf. "Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but..."

The dwarf interrupts her, "Have you been in the valley, Seeker? Your soldiers aren't in control anymore. You need me."

The Seeker turns away from Varric and stomps away from him, a noise of disgust leaving her lips.

Solas takes a step closer to us. "My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I am pleased to see you still live."

I quirk an eyebrow as Varric elaborates, "He means, 'I kept that mark from killing you as you slept.'"

"You seem to know a great deal about it all," I say, smirk on my lips and left hand on my hip.

"Like you, Solas is an apostate," Cassandra says, and Solas raises an eyebrow at me.

"Yet you don't use your magic?" he asks me, something in his tone sounding off.

I shrug my shoulders at him. "Either I never knew or, and this is more likely, my jaunt in the Fade took more memories from me than just what happened at the Conclave. Sure surprised me when I froze that Shade in a block of ice," I chuckle a bit sheepishly.

"Interesting," Solas mutters. "Either way, technically all mages are apostates now, Cassandra. My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage. I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed, regardless of origin."

That is pretty damned commendable of him. "And what will you do once this is over?" I ask him, already knowing his answer. His true answer.

"One hopes those in power will remember who helped and who did not." He looks at Cassandra before saying, "Cassandra, you should know: the magic involved here is unlike any I have seen. Your prisoner is a mage, as unorthodox as she is," I scowl at that remark, "but I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power."

Cassandra nods her head at him. "Understood. We must get to the forward camp quickly." She starts moving towards a wooden fence, Solas following after her.

I take a step to follow, only to feel the muscles of my lower back seize. 'Please, not now!' I let out a hiss in pain as my right leg buckles. I would have fallen if not for Varric grabbing me and using his own body to support my weight. We hobble to some steps, where Varric sits me down, as Cassandra and Solas make their way back to us.

"Are you alright?" asks Varric.

Before I can respond, Cassandra asks, "Is it your back again?" I look at her before nodding my head. I look at my legs, only to notice that I need to readjust the brace. Before anyone else can say anything, I reach for the straps of the brace and start unbuckling them.

"What is that?" asks Varric, taking a closer look at the contraption on my leg. The brace consists of two hinged bars on either side of my knee, contoured to the shape of my leg, length extending 8 inches above and 5 inches below my knee. The top of the brace curves over the top of my thigh and the bottom curves behind my calf, adding more stabilization to the hinged parts- made of hardened leather enchanted against the elements. It's held in place by two leather straps above and below, wrapping around my leg and secured by brass buckles.

"It's my brace," I state, readjusting it after creating enough slack before re-tightening the four straps.

"Why do you need it, and who made it?" asks Solas, giving my brace a strange look. As if he has seen something like this before.

The memories of this body come easier to me this time. "I was attacked by a damned abomination when I was seven," I growl out, not seeing the horrified looks on their faces. "Some stupid runaway from a circle allowed a demon to inhabit his body. If Mamae hadn't arrived in time to kill it, I'd be dead," I give a derisive snort. "Either way, my spine was severed and the surrounding muscles ruined." The three of them have horrified expressions on their faces .

"How are you even able to walk?" Varric asks, green in the face.

"Mamae was a healer, but it took her and another healer passing through six months before I could even put weight on my legs, let alone re-learn how to walk," they all balk at that as I scrunch my nose. "That took two years. I was stuck using crutches due to my right leg not fully recovering, before He came."

"Who?" asks Solas.

"We call him the Toymaker," I start, slowly leaning forward to stretch my back muscles. "He visits the local Dalish clans, giving the children toys. But when he heard about the attack, he visited our home. He's the one who built me my first brace and gave me a portion of my independence back. He'd visit every year or so to make adjustments, or to build a new brace when I'd outgrow the previous one. Haven't seen him in a few years," I mumble the last part.

I give a small sigh in contentment as my back gives a small pop and the muscles finally relax. I take a small sip of an elfroot potion to relieve some of the pain.

"Are there any other lingering effects?" Solas asks, giving me a hand to help me back up.

I stand there for a moment, testing my leg, before nodding at him. "Yeah, there are. You've already seen one of them: my back muscles protesting that my leg sometimes gives out. But there are also days that my leg won't support any weight at all, and I'll be bed bound for a time. There are also times that I could be perfectly normal. It changes. The cold sure doesn't help" I tell them, and I see Cassandra's face pale in realization.

"The way I treated you before back at..." she starts, but I interrupt her.

"No harm, no foul," I tell her. "You didn't know, and I didn't tell you." I take a few measured steps towards the wooden fence. "Now, we were going somewhere?" I raise an eyebrow at them, a smirk on my lips.

Mamae - mother, mom

A/N: And that's a wrap! What do you guys think? And if any of you are asking, I have permission to use the Toymaker in my stories. Rate and review! Whitewolf3190 signing off!