I hope readers are enjoying what I have so far. I like writting this story because it is more of my writting and I don't have to make sure that a lot of my facts are correct because there is not much on the God Child or the Old Gods so I get to make it up as I go. I'm hoping that it will be original and unlike the others stories that are posted.

"What happen?"

"I don't know, she just… collapsed!"

"Avari?"

"Get the Keeper… NOW!"

Avari could hear the faint voices around her as the mysterious human male began to fade in her mind. She slowly opened her eyes to see the worried faces of the Dalish hunters around her, each one letting out a sigh of relief when she smiled. "What happen?" She asked rubbing the fogginess from her eyes. "Are you alright?" Lathi asked crouching down next to the girl. "Elora said you took your shot and then collapsed to the ground!" He frowned checking over the Elf again. "Did you not see the shemlen?" Avari looked at him in confusion. "He was there in front of the beast, he caught the arrow and snapped it in two." She looked to Elora. "He talked to me you must have heard us speaking." Elora and Lathi looked at each other confused. "Avari, there was no shem in front of the bear." Lathi answered her. "You hit the bear and it fell to the ground. No shem caught the arrow." Elora looked down at the Elf. "Are you sure you are feeling well?" She asked looking over the girl with worry. "We should get her back to camp and to the Keeper." Lathi nodded agreeing with Elora. The two hunters pulled the mage to her feet, each taking an arm and wrapping it around their necks to take the weight off of her weak legs. Avari rested her head on Lathi's shoulder not feeling faint until they had pulled her up right, it was a struggle just to keep her eyes open. She began to focus on the bright flowers and dark greens of the forest while she whispered in Elven tongue trying to focus on the words that were difficult for her mouth to form. It was a battle in its self to keep her heavy eyes open her body wanted sleep but she denied it as she forced her mind to stay alert while she mumbled out words that had not had meaning since they had passed the water that fell freely from the cliff, she spoke like a madman but luckily under her breath where the others could not hear her and so they could not pass judgment on the dazed Elf. The sight of the Keeper was a welcomed sight. Avari forced her mouth into a weak grin when the Keeper looked at her with worry but her smile had forced her mind to stop its work on trying to pronounce the difficult words. Her legs were the first to go leaving her feet to drag through the dirt as the hunters dragged her through the camp, her arms quickly followed and her head hung low with defeat as she finally slipped into the Fade once more.

Lathi picked the girl up when her body became too heavy for Elora to pull along any longer she was lighter than the bears that he often carried from the woods into the camp and caused no trouble for his body to hold. He carefully laid the beautiful girl down onto the furs outside the healer's tents where the Keeper had directed him. The healers quickly came to the Keepers aid and began checking the girl and washing her over with light blue magic while others pulled her boots and fingerless gloves off and gently set them aside. He watched his friend as her face, fingers and toes twitched under the cool thick magic that now covered her entire body like a thick quilt. The Keeper put a small vile of lyrium, that they had acquired from a human settlement just beyond the camp, to Avari's lips picking up her head so the strong blue liquid would flow easily down the girl's throat and give her strength. A moment after the vile had been emptied and cast away did Avari open her eyes once more, the healing magic still cooling her skin. "It seems you are weakened." The Keeper answered her confused look. "You have drained yourself, from what I am not sure." She looked over the girl once more once the healers had stopped their spells and the magic faded into the wind, she gently placed furs over the girl to keep the forests winds from nipping at her skin. Lathi waited until the Elves had left before he sat on the ground next to the girl. "What happen to you?" He whispered soft enough so only the two of them could hear. "You did not see the shem?" Avari questioned him as he pushed the piece of her chocolate hair that had covered her face. "There was no shem, lethallan." He answered with a frown. "There was only the hunters and bear, no shemlen." She sighed turning her head to look beyond the fire. Lathi looked over his shoulder when he saw the girls eyes squint with curiosity. "What's going on?" She asked beginning to sit up. He gently stopped her and pushed her back down against the furs. "Stay. I will go and see if there is trouble." He gently kissed her forehead before making his way to where the Keeper stood with the hunters that watched over the entrance to the camp.

Avari propped herself on her elbow when Lathi glanced over his shoulder at her before turning back to the group of Elves. Her hair fell around her and she leaned forward trying her best to strain her hearing so she could hear of the excitement. Her ears flattened like a challenged animal when she saw the tall figures, each one with a hood pulled over their face. She could tell by the height that they were shems, she counted at least five maybe more. "What are shems doing here?" She asked when she noticed Lathi nearing her. "There have been no shems here since the King granted us this land." She pushed his hand away when he tried to force her back down on the furs she sat up and looked over her shoulder at the shemlens who were now following the Keeper and a few hunters towards the Keepers aravel. "Why have they come?" She asked again. "I do not know. Zayla said they would only speak to the Keeper." He answered following Avari and watching the shems as they disappeared behind the thick leather that covered the entrance to the aravel, they left a large hound outside who fell to the ground with a huff. In time Lathi took his leave, Avari fell asleep watching the Keepers aravel waiting for the shemlen to exit it or for a commotion to begin where she would be needed in combat. Nothing had happened. A few of the younger Elves had stopped to admire the Mabari and give him a scrap of meat but the Humans had not emerged.

Avari had always been very at home in the Fade, the spirits welcomed her as one of their own and the demons feared her. She had entered the Fade for the first time as a young child before her magic had ever shown itself a spirit had revealed itself to her at a young age and had been by her side since that day. She had never known its name and it never showed its self but she could feel its presence and hear its voice. She had questioned at times if it was a demon trying to find a weakness in her mind that it could prey upon but the spirit had never shown her any type of aggressive manner it protected her from the eyes of the demons and the dangers that lingered in the Fade waiting to take hold of weak mages minds. She spent as much time in the Fade as she did in the real world, it had become a second home to her. But lately the Fade had felt different the dark haired female was the first mage that had ever approached her and then the man with golden eyes. He had been powerful she had felt it pouring from him like water would through a crack in a bowl. And now she was in an area she had never been before, so close to what the humans referred to as The Black City. She could see the darkness that seemed to cover the realm across from her it was like a heavy fog so dark that the eye could not see beyond it. "The Black City." A voice remarked behind her causing her to quickly turn around with a spell lit on her fingertips. "You!" She exclaimed when she saw the man with the golden eyes. "Do you not remember my name?" He asked stepping closer to her and taking her hand. She gasped, shocked, when his hand extinguished her spell. "Malik." He reminded her stepping closer to the edge of the Fade's land and looking up at The Dark City. The Elf stared at him. "Who are you?" She asked raising an eyebrow. "I told you my name is, Malik." He smiled turning back to the Elf. "We will meet outside of here." "When?" She asked as the human stepped closer and took her face in his hands. "When you wake." He chuckled. "I am here in your camp." "You are with the shems who came the night before?" Her ears flattened into her hair. Malik ran his fingers across them to where they came to a point and then back down with a strand of her hair between each finger. "Your friend, Lathi, he will ask you to come with him to a ruin in the forest." He looked up at the Elves dark green eyes staring at him intently. "I will be waiting there for you, in the chamber where your elders slept in the time before man corrupted them. Look for me, Avari." Her brow furrowed as she looked at him with curiosity. "How do you know so much about my people? You spoke in our tongue something that many of us cannot do." He smiled and stepped away from her to again look at The Black City that was in the distance. "I know many things that others do not, I am also capable of things that a mere mortal could not even dream to do." Avari stepped back and covered her mouth as the Fade around them shifted and shaped into something new. "You… you are a demon then?" "No I am not a demon but I spent most of my prior life in this realm. It housed me along with my kin. We were in an endless dream a sleep forced upon us from the Maker for our sins. We pushed our worshipers for power we wished to touch a God unlike ourselves but we did not expect our greed would taint his world and he would cast us down as punishment. We betrayed him we were tainted with greed for power we took His worship unto ourselves in our greed. Our worshipers turned away from their Maker and instead celebrated us, and we reveled in it. Even after He had cast us down and forced us deep under the foot of man we still called for our faithful wishing to be free but we did not know that the Maker had also punished them. Twisting them into an unspeakable horror which in turn they would taint us with just a single touch and our soul would then again be forced to seek out power." Malik looked down at the ground with shame. "Our greed is our demise in the end, the faithful seek us out and they destroy us at the peak of our power. The Maker puts our dreams in front of us and then rips them from our grip. T'is a hard lesson but one that we should learn. We are like a child reaching for Mothers jewelry only to be swatted down and punished." She looked at him confused at what he was speaking of. "I do not understand." He smiled turning back to the young Elf. "You will in time, words will never explain my nature it is too complicated but I will show you in time, Avari." He took the Elf's face again, resting his forehead upon hers. "But I can promise you, you will never have anything to fear from me, love. I have always been and will always remain your guardian in the shadows."