A/N Another chapter for the masses! :)

Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Midnight Friday is the expiration date for votes on the poll, just saying. Oh, and I'm going to post the results not only here but on my profile so everyone knows what's happening.


I blink into existence near Pause's plane in the Fade and step over to 'knock' on his thoughts. He waves a hand to let me inside and I step forwards, "Pause." I incline my head to him.

"Drifter." He does the same. "It has been some time since we have seen each-other. How has your new life treated you?"

I sit on a rock that instantly morphs into an armchair and nod, "Yeah, I'm not here for long, I just need to-"

"Talk about Erianne, I know." He forms a ball of purple energy in his claws and spins it to reveal her face, "I've been watching her ever since you changed her fate. It is interesting to see how little it took for her to step into the role of the Warden in this cycle."

I stare at the laughing image of Eri and sigh as I push down my guilt for leaving her alone in the forest, even though it wasn't my fault. "What should I do Pause? She's going to die. I've already seen it in my dreams, if I don't change fate she will die fighting the Archdemon to save King Alistair."

He slaps his claws together, breaking my thoughts. "You do nothing, you have perfected a cycle you don't even know and the only thing you did was replace the Warden with a commoner. You might not understand this..." I glare at him. "But the Fade is not as permanent as your world, or this one. It-"

"Shifts constantly to maintain an ever-changing psyche in which the dreamers take form. I know Pause, because I read it from the Manual of Dreamers years ago. Now what can I do to save Erianne?"

He shifts quietly, not answering for a moment before turning to shuffle over to a bookshelf I just notice and thumb a few spines, "There... are no possibilities that could bring about less suffering and the Warden's life. I am sorry."

I growl, "No, I don't accept that! Look harder!"

He doesn't look at me, "I have already searched the halls of prophecy and looked at every outcome possible." He turns to flash up in front of me to face me directly and speak mere inches form my face. "Erianne must die to end the Archdemon, it's the only way the Guardian can be born."

"Guardian? What Guardian?" I ask quietly, surprised by the finality in his low voice.

He doesn't answer me as a bell chimes in the background, "This is our departure Drifter... you cannot come here again..." I open my mouth to argue and he pushes me back out of his thoughts and into my own realm before out of the Fade entirely...


Stars... they never change... billions of stars ever-twirling around a central black hole that holds the entire galaxy intact... I wonder if one of those stars out there holds my Earth.

I shake my head and focus back onto the leftover rabbit stew I'm warming up on the campfire with fresh leeks for breakfast. I look up and see Sten still staring off into the distance.

He was here before I was, did he even sleep?

"YAWN!" I look over my shoulder and see Erianne walk out of her tent in full armor as usual. She smiles as she takes in the morning air, "Mmm... what's that smell?" Opening her eyes she sees me cooking and walks over as I stir the pot. "What's this? You got up early?"

I silently nod, not wanting to talk about my dream, or what Pause forced down my throat. "I didn't sleep much so I checked on Leliana and Alistair."

She sits down next to me in the dirt, "How are they?"

I stop stirring for a moment to sum up their conditions, "Alistair is fine, he just needs to wake up and have a hot meal and he'll be right as rain." I don't look at her and start stirring the pot again, "Leliana still needs a few days rest, we were lucky to give her the anti-venom in time. She's still fighting back the after-effects of the venom though. Hopefully she'll wake before we get to Ostagar..."

"Sod." She shakes her head sadly, "I really messed up didn't I?" She lets her face fall into her gloved hands.

I reach over and touch her shoulder, "You were just inexperienced, now you know to never leave without anti-venom and plenty of health potions. Just be thankful no-one died for the... accident."

She sighs and smiles at my comfort, "Thanks again for saving Leliana. I'm sure she'll be grateful."

"Yeah, right, I'll be sure to talk to her when she wakes up." I stir the pot as we fall back into silence.

She shuffles in the dirt, "I don't think we should go to Redcliff."

I stop to look at her and she meets my eye. "We aren't ready for that yet, or Ostagar. We have to learn how to work as a team in battle before we want to go up against the horde just to get back to where this all started."

I smile at her reasoning, "That's logical, yeah I get it. What do you want to do instead? Go to Orzammar?"

She scoffs, "I REALLY don't want to deal with the Deep Roads for a while, and you know we'll have to trek through them if we go to Orzammar." She pulls out a map and lays it down in the dirt with stone weights. "Here, Soldier's Peak." I look at the small black dot near the northern part of Ferelden where she's pointing. "There used to be a Grey Warden base here in Ferelden a hundred years ago, but they left it when they were kicked out. Levi, a traveling merchant, made a deal with Duncan before all this began to reclaim the fort for the Grey Wardens while finding evidence of Levi's great great grandmother's greatness since she was a warden there when it fell." I nod as she traces a finger down the road to just below the Circle tower. "We are here, if we set off today we'll make it there in less than two days." She keeps tracing down south and stops at Redcliff. "Just getting to Redcliff is easily a week's journey if we have wounded, four days if everything was pristine. Then if we can manage to get help there or even a resupply it might take another eight days for us to enter the wilds, find Ostagar, avoid the darkspawn horde, and deal with whatever we find when we get there. It's seriously going to be taxing on the group, and if we need to deal with dwindling resources AND wounded at the same time we aren't going to make it that far. Not to mention our lack of unity in battle."

I nod in absolute agreement and point at Soldier's Peak, "Then we take back Soldier's Peak. Levi can resupply us and we could take a shortcut through the Bannorn if we feel adventurous." I trace a path through the heart of the Bannorn that intersects with Lothering to meet up with the Imperial Highway. "If we hit the highway we can take it to Ostagar, save three days trip."

She shakes her head, "If the darkspawn haven't already flooded the Highway." She notes while tapping the shaded areas of the map that show the last known location of the horde just north of Lothering and possibly flooding the Bannorn.

I grumble in agreement while absentmindedly stirring the pot, "True, but at least it's a possibility." I look over the map and try to remember how it went in the game. I circle the Bannorn just north of Lothering, "The horde seems to be focused on the Bannorn at least, that'll give us freedom to roam through the country-side without too much to delay us. I'd give them maybe five months, six at most before they make a push to take all of Ferelden though."

Erianne nods sadly, "Yeah, I thought so too. We've got six months to recruit all of the warden's allies AND settle a Civil War before even thinking about taking on the Archdemon. I don't know if we can do it." I look at her questioningly and she meets it with fierce determination, "But we have to, for the sake of all of Thedas!"

I laugh, "Now there's that fiery determination the warden's are famous for!" She smiles sheepishly and looks behind me to smile even brighter. I turn around to see Alistair stumbling out of Wynne's tent in the shirt and trousers he kept on under his armor. "Well, look who decided to wake up." I comment as he sits down next to Erianne.

He rubs his head tiredly, "Oh... I haven't felt this woozy since I lost a drinking match and had to plunge head-first into a pond because I lost." He leans forwards and inhales the stew, "Wow, that smells amazing." His stomach growls and I smile as I scoop out a bowl and hand it to him filled to the brim. "Thanks." He instantly starts wolfing it down, using his hands as utensils and getting broth all over his shirt.

Erianne and I laugh as he finishes it up by licking the bowl clean, "Holy Creators! Were you possessed by a hunger demon when I wasn't looking Alistair?!" I exclaim happily.

He frowns, "Maybe, or was it a demon of food...? I'm not sure, it seemed pretty famished."

Erianne bursts out laughing and I stare at her for a moment before smiling as I see how close they're sitting together.

Oh, that's nice. I never thought She'd go for him, or at least I thought she wasn't into the clueless funny types.

I fill another bowl for each of them and we all have some nice conversation over breakfast. Sooner or later Sten, Wynne, and the Dwarves joined in as well and by the time the sun is relatively high in the sky everyone's fed and packing up the tent to move towards Soldiers Peak. Alistair didn't complain since his belly was full and his back quit aching so our plan was clear.


The mouth of the cave finally opens up to the chilling outside air and I shiver to try and keep my body temperature up. "Tis freezing!" I exclaim while turning my black velvet into a type of thick coat to hold off winter's advance down my spine.

"I do not feel any different." Sten replies from beside me.

"We get that. Qunari are powerhouses in bitter climates, but I'm just a little elf used to the forest where it's always warm! Tis never below freezing in the forest!" I rub my arms under the black cloak as my booted feet stomp through half a foot of snow to try and keep up with Alistair's perfect windbreaker of a torso.

"I think it's quite nice in the winter." Alistair comments lightly.

Erianne glares from up ahead where she's shivering in her thin leather armor and looking like the icicles hanging off of her bow.

"Elves are ill-equipped to deal with harsh climates." Sten states the obvious.

I nearly trip on a rock hidden beneath the snow and huff in annoyance, "You think?"

He stops and turns to me with a hard gaze, "I know."

"Alright?" I scurry up ahead and into the tree line to get a break from the chilly mountain air as Levi finally finds the path and points up towards the fort. Barkspawn hops in and out of the snow around us as we stop, probably the only one enjoying the winter wonderland.

Lucky bastard, I wish I was insulated with two inches of fur.

"And here we are. Soldier's Peak." Levi states happily.

We all look up as the blizzard clears us a fine view of the magnificent fortress carved into the mountainside. "Wow..." I breath in wonder.

"Impressive." Sten comments quietly.

Levi smiles in awe, "Maker's breath, look at the size of her. What a fortress. I told you the map would get us through the tunnels."

Erianne turns to look at him in exasperation as she break a five inch icicle off her bow and shatter it in her fist as she shakes her head. "Andraste's blood, how did you find that path on your own?"

Levi turns away, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Just tell me before my toes freeze of?"

Levi blinks before nodding as he explains, "It came to me in my dreams. When I was a lad, I tried going through the tunnel by myself, got horribly lost. But every now and again since, I've dreamt of it."

Erianne raises a snowy eyebrow, "Huh, interesting... Lets carry on, our time to stop the Blight is already short as it is." She turns and starts hiking up towards the entrance to the massive fortress.

"Right you are. I'll follow you, from a distance. This place smells of death."

We all walk up with Erianne, watching the darker corners of the fort as we enter the unhinged gates.

"Soldier's Peak. Looks like its had better days, better centuries more like." I smile at Alistair's comment as Barkspawn barks in agreement. "Yeah you got that right... oh great, now I'm talking to the dog."

Erianne and I start snickering under our breath as we keep moving inwards towards the courtyard.

This is nice, actually quite peaceful. I wonder wher-

My vision shifts and everyone stops to stare as glowing figures blend into a vision from the past.

Me and my big mouth...

"Fall back, fall back already!" A man in a General's armor orders to his men as they are slaughtered by the unseen sentries guarding the inner walls of the fort.

A soldier, a lieutenant maybe, stops to respond, "Taking the Peak will not be easy m'lord."

The General scowls in anger, "I gave the Wardens one chance to die with honor. Instead, they hole up like cowards. We follow the King's advice, then. Starve them out."

"But the Peak has months of supplies!"

"Then we wait. When they are too weak to lift their weapons, we will send them to their final Judgment."

The entire courtyard clears up as everything bends back to reality.

Holy Creators! That was a LOT of fade energy!

Levi stares and does a double-take before turning towards Erianne, "Wha- What was that? I felt a bit woozy there. I'm not mad right? You saw it, too?" His eyes are huge at this point with fear.

Hell, I'd be freaked out too if this wasn't my... wow, I've seen more than two hundred visions in my three lifetimes... how am I not absolutely insane by now?

Erianne nods kindly, "I had a vision too, Levi." I look at her and see she's quite disturbed by the event. As is Alistair and Sten.

I clarify, "It was a waking dream."

Levi looks at me in surprise, "How is that possible? This place must be truly haunted."

I shake my head, "The Veil is thin here. The Circle Tower was just the same."

"The Veil?"

I sigh at his understandable lack of knowledge, "An invisible weave that separates us from the Fade and Demon. I can feel it weakened here."

Levi freaks out appropriately, "D-Demons?" He turns to Erianne, "Thank Andraste you came Warden." He sighs and holds out an arm to let us pass, "After you."

We arm ourselves properly and form up with Sten, Alistair, and Barkspawn in the front while Erianne and I are supporting in the back. As soon as we make it to the center of the courtyard the icy ground breaks apart and armored corpses stagger to their feet as wisps of fade energy bleed into them to give them life. "Kill them quickly!" I shout as I let my cloak drop to the snow and focus on the fade energy around us. After realizing the source of the corpse's resurrection I rip the fade energy out of two corpses behind us just as I swipe my staff around to the front, flash-freezing the first wave in a thick layer of ice and frost with a powerful cone of cold. I spot the last of the armored corpses rushing to flank around their frozen brethren so I shout the ancient words for a powerful spell I know, "Torik Melash!" I spin my staff around and a great wall of flames grows around the corpses as they're resurrected. Some are incinerated on contact while others stay put, knowing the flames would spell their death if they tried to advance.

"Attack!" Erianne commands as she arms herself with her icy bow.

Sten and Alistair rush into the first wave, bashing their shield and greatsword against the frozen enemies to shatter them into chunks of decayed flesh and metal. They rush into the cornered corpses as my column wall of fire ends, smashing them to the ground to be ended quickly with swift stabs to the skull.

"Sten left! Alistair right!" I look around at Erianne's orders and barely have time to react as almost a dozen corpses of all types flank us from all sides. I spot a mage in the back on the left and toss a fireball into the group, staggering them as Sten arrives to chop two of the warrior corpse's heads clean off.

Arrows fly behind me from Erianne and I turn to bash my staff against the side of a rogue corpse that snuck up behind me. It staggers as I grab it's bony throat with a freezing touch and force ice spikes to protrude through the already cracked skull, breaking it apart. I let go and it falls to the ground, dead. "We have to regroup!" I call across the courtyard.

Erianne can't respond as she duels with three archers from her elevated spot on the staircase. Alistair looks over at the wrong time and gets thrown by a large corpse with a shield and sword.

"Alistair!" I shout as I reach out and grasp at the ice under the shielded beast to freeze it in place, the spikes of ice shooting up from the ground to pierce through it's armor and disable it quickly.

Alistair scurries back and tries to get back up on the icy ground as quickly as possible, fearful for his life.

I take no rest from the exertion and turn around to see Sten kill the last of his side with a sweeping blow that slices two archers in half at the torso.

"Get back!" Erianne calls.

I turn back towards her just as the shattering arrow hits the shielded corpse's armor, cracking apart the plate metal but also freeing it from it's icy prison. I form an arcane shield and ready myself for it's strike as it steps towards me.

But Alistair charges forwards instead, "Go back to being dead you-!" It bashes Alistair away with it's sword as it collides with his shield and sends Alistair flying across the field to land in a snow bank.

"Alistair!" I quickly cut my palm and toss the pure blood magic out to blast the nine foot tall beast onto it's back in a mild blood-pulse.

Erianne puts a shattering arrow into it's skull as it tries to get back up and the cranium shatters like pottery.

I breath a sigh of relief as the battle ends and holster my staff to run over and help Alistair back to his feet. He shakes his head clear as Erianne and Sten walk over, "Well, that was embarrassing."

Before I or Erianne can reprimand him for stupidly charging the heavy corpse, Sten stomps up and gets in his face, "You lost your footing, I thought you were a warrior, not a stone to be rolled over and sat upon." The contempt and disappointment in his voice makes Erianne and I blink in surprise.

Alistair bends his neck to look up at Sten uncomfortably, "Uh... what do you-?"

"Pashera! I will teach you the proper stance for shield-wall when we re-enter camp. Until then, try not to die." Sten stomps away and stands stoically on watch at the base of the stairs while Alistair blushes.

Erianne smirks at him, "Alistair, you don't know shield-wall?" She asks with laughter and concern in her voice.

He fidgets with his plated hands, "What? I never thought I needed to. I was training to fight mages, what mage charges at a templar?!"

I laugh as Erianne pinches the bridge of her nose with bluing fingertips.

We really need to get out of this cold.

"Alright, but after this everyone tells me what they can and cannot do! I can't build a viable strategy if I don't know my squad's strengths and weaknesses!" She blinks and looks around, "Wait, where's Barkspawn?"

Alistair and I look around in surprise as well and can't seem to find where he or Levi ran off to.

What happened? Were they cornered? Kidnapped? Wha-

"Warden!" We turn around and see Levi and Barkspawn running from behind a few bushes near the gate. He stops just short of running into us and smiles, "You have a pretty smart dog Warden, saved my life dragging me into them bushes."

Erianne smiles and kneels down to scratch behind her dog's ear affectionately, "Awe, you're such a good dog."

He barks happily and spins around to wage his tail.

Erianne laughs at his antics before getting serious, "Ok, everyone grab whatever you see that's useful from the corpses and lets move." I grab my cloak and turn it back into my normal robes before stepping up the staircase to watch for enemies, just in case.


Everything distorts as we enter into the main hall.

"The men's morale is low. My spells are of no use in this matter, commander." I search my thoughts but for the life of me I can't name this strangely familiar bald mage in the vision.

Sophia steps from him, "There is more to leading then sorcery Avernus." Avernus! There we go! "I will remind them that they are wardens." She steps over to the center of the hall and many more apparitions appear, all of them that of wardens from ages past. "Men, I won't lie to you. The situation is grim. Our forces are out-numbered. Our bellies empty. And our hearts are sagging, but WE ARE WARDENS! Darkspawn flee when they hear our horns. Archdemons die when they taste our blades! So are we to bend knee to a mere human despot? NO!" I get a shiver down my spine as her very voice commands respect. "I, for one, will never give up! I, for one, will never surrender just to dance in Arland's Gallows! So I propose here and now, in these hallowed halls where generations of our brethren stood vigil against darkspawn and evil, that we send a message to that fat bastard! In this sacred place, proud me, strong men, stood defiant! And would rather die than submit to tyranny!"

Every warden in the room cheers out their support as the vision ends and I find myself clapping at such a magnificent speech. "I've got to write that down! That was just... just... completely epic!"

Levi smiles as he turns to us, "So brave, even when starving. And my great great grandmother stood with them."

"It sounds like there's greatness in your blood." Eri comments kindly.

Levi gets flustered by her kindness, "Oh, well. That's kind of you to say. Generations of Drydens have said that our stock were lions. Fierce, proud, and noble, but I've gabbed enough, lead on my friend."

She nods and turns to me, "Darien, sense anything?"

I look at the room and close my eyes, "Yes, the Veil is thinning the father we move into the Peak. Tis likely for the Tear to be close by."

She nods in agreement and we advance to the next room.

"Watch out!" I call as the door opens up to two lesser rage demons and an Arcane Horror. I flash a blood-pulse as they approach and the two demons are tossed back a bit.

Sten then comes out of nowhere and slices the Arcane Horror right in half with a mighty sweep. Alistair rushes in afterwards at Erianne's command and gets right up to the demons before smiting them to death, clearing the room.

"Check the side rooms." Sten and Alistair do as they are commanded as I get over how quickly we killed those demons.

I shake my head and look around for anything I could copy down for later.

Oh! The inscription from the first room!


"I found this on the wall back there. I wrote it down for the warden scribes later." I hand the parchment I used to copy down the inscription to Erianne.

She reads over it and smiles, "Good." She packs it away and her brow creases with worry, "I'm worried about this Tear, are you sure you can close it?"

I nod resolutely, "Yes, I've done it before. T'would require some uninterrupted time, but tis quite possible."

Sten and Alistair return looking no worst for wear, "Alright, lets move on."

Down the hall and past the kitchen I open the door to the library part of the fort and immediately freeze the three corpses behind the door solid. Sten, Alistair, and Erianne each shatter one, clearing the way inside.

We are seriously becoming unstoppable here!

I walk in and over to the bookshelf to find all but one is burned. I pick up the thick journal and start reading it to find it's the Archivist's.

'After hours of repeated siege of our walls the King's forces-' I jump as the page catches on fire and fade tendrils bring three more corpses back to life around us. Sten and Alistair take them down with ease as I swallow from the shock, "Creators... that surprised me."

Erianne glares at me, "Be careful Darien, you're going to get us all killed!" She reprimands angrily.

Well that was unwarranted.

"Yeah, sorry, won't happen again." I roll my eyes as I pick up the journal again.

"Andraste's ass! Stop touching that thing!"

I rip my staff from it's leather holder and crush a Rage demon with a blast of archaic ice as it appears. "I've figured that part out already!" Sten kills another as Alistair bashes and beheads the last corpse that rose.

Erianne sheathes her bow, "Darien..."

"How would I have known that would happen? Tis insulting you would just assume I am an ignorant fool!"

She sighs, "Just- be more carefu-"

We all stop as another vision flashes before our eyes.

A female mage is pressed against a door bouncing on it's hinges, "The door won't hold Archivist!"

The Archivist, an elderly man, shakes his head, "Just a bit more time, the truth must be told."

"What does it matter? We're dead." The mage says sadly.

The Archivist stands from his books, "Our grand rebellion... so close... and to die here a stillbirth."

The mage abandons the door to stand next to him, "We never should have done it! Wardens aren't supposed to oppose kings and princes."

He turns to her, "Should we stand idly by while-" The door bursts open and a bright light ends the vision.

I shake my head uneasily.

Man, these visions are starting to get to me...

Levi looks around worriedly, "Another one... Rebellion? What's this about a rebellion? If only the book weren't burned."

Everyone stares at me.

"Don't look at me! It spontaneously combusted!" Erianne shakes her head in a bout of disappointment. "And if you must know Arland was a tyrant, according to the transcription I saw before it went up, and slaughtered any and all opposition that could threaten his campaign to take the throne. It noted the Drydens for some reason also." I lie easily.

I technically already knew that part from Sophia, but adding it to an already destroyed document saves us time and being forced to deal with a demon.

Erianne watches me carefully for a moment before nodding in acceptance of my words. "Alright, keep looking." She glares at me, "But don't touch anything!"

I roll my eyes as we all move to walk to the second floor, "Whatever you say, Warden."