Quick Update: Thank you again to everyone who's liking the story so far. I wish I could post every thing I have written so far, but I'm trying to pace myself. I have a lot more written (like 17,000 words worth) and its a little odd to come back from how far I am with the story to this point where Zero is still just starting to spread her wings. I hope you're liking it so far and if you are please leave a comment or something!

Also: I'm implementing from now on that italics represent thought when out of quotations and Zero's language when in quotations.

Thanks again :)

-Jade

Danica led Zero to the door, pushed it open and spoke to the soldier outside for a short minute. She didn't understand what was said, but soon Solas and Danica were walking besides her up the stairs and into the main building.

The Chantry of Haven. It's much different than when Warden Allora encountered it, but then again, it's been ten years since she and her companions made the pilgrimage to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.

Once they breached the main building, many of the passing chantry sisters nodded and bowed to Danica, their eyes glancing off of Solas and Zero like they didn't exist. Around the room, the women in religious clothing flitted about, talking to other sisters, and the revered mother in the corner near a shrine. It was all very busy movement compared to the stillness of her cell.

As Danica pulled her forward, blithely ignoring the attention and stares, Zero was struck with how lucky she was that she had fallen into a kind Inquisitor's thread. How many Heroes and Champion's threads had she studied that were just awful people? Far too many. Her thoughts were broken as Danica pushed the doors of the Chantry open and for the first time in over 23 years, Zero stepped out into a cool breeze and sunlight.

She was struck in an instant by the beauty of nature as tears prickled in her eyes once more.

In the Barrier, threaders were kept under lock and key, much like the mages of this world. Likewise, she had never left her 'home' in the Barrier. It was not dissimilar to a mages tower, but without windows and any exit doors guarded to the nines. She had faint memories from before she had been taken at the tender age of four; a large, cool hand in her own, and the smell of (what she assumed was) wild daisies. She had watched the memories of the Hero and the Champion, but she had only seen their histories. Zero hadn't felt anything like this in the threads.

She'd never felt so alive and at peace; the wind ghosting her skin, her black hair swaying in the breeze, the warmth of the sunlight on her skin. Things she'd never before experienced. It took her breath away in an instant.

There was a hand on her shoulder. "Cero?" Danica and Solas were watching her.

Zero wiped her eyes hastily. "Was like mage in other world." She croaked. "Lived in big, tall house with many others. Not allowed out. Not been out since" she held her hands to her knees. "Was taken when small. First time out in many years. What's that call?" She pointed at the sun.

"Kiv." Solas stepped in front of her, blocking outsiders view so they wouldn't see her crying.

"Kiv." Zero croaked. "Sun."

When Zero finally straightened up and dusted herself off, Solas and Danica walked beside her, teaching her more words and phrases as they pointed out places and people. Zero did her best to take in what she could, but overall was just enjoying the peaceful day with the breeze and warm light. Danica had just finished teaching her the word for tavern when a short man stopped in front of them.

"Hello Herald, Chuckles." The man shoved his hand in Zero's direction. "Varric Tethras: lakio, kdalavdorrol uvk, addukaavurrav, ivvordano dukuravk. Nado da nood you, kvoodhould, what's your name?"

"My name is Zero. Sorry, still learning language, say last bit again please?" Varric chuckled but repeated himself. Zero nodded. "Nice to meet you too, Varric Tethras."

Seemingly satisfied (although not quite, if the twinkle in his eyes were anything to go by), Varric turned to Danica and struck up a short conversation. While they talked, Solas pointed out other things to her, teaching her more words and names, and correcting her grammar. When Danica was finally finished talking, they bid their goodbyes to Varric and continued around Haven. They had just reached the lower gates when Zero decided to breach the subject of races.

"What Varric kind called? And Danica and Solas kind? My kind?" Zero asked.

"Ah," Solas exchanged a glance with Danica. "Varric is a Dwarf, Danica and I are Elves, and you are a Human. Danica is Dalish, which are elves who wander the wilds. I am also a wanderer, but do not consider myself Dalish. There is also another race called Qunari, who have horns on their heads. Are there no other races on your world?"

"Don't know." Zero shrugged. "Might be, but I only saw people work with. Everyone in Barrier is human."

"I see."

Zero had the feeling she might have committed some fax paus, so she eagerly moved the conversation along. "Where to next?"

The trio continued on their trek through Haven, showing her the training grounds, the stables, and then they stopped at the forge/armory. "We're picking up a new staff for me, and some newer clothes that you can change into." Danica explained, parking Zero and Solas at the tree line.

"Okay, thank you."

"Well, after you get changed our next mission is to find you some work to do during your off time, so don't thank me just yet. We're also going to get someone to teach you to defend yourself while we're away. We do a lot of missions, so we'll introduce you to someone who's almost always here."

"Work is good." Zero grinned. "Very glad to help. Know when we going to take care of barcode?"

"We're going to talk to Leliana about that after this. We'll probably go to the Temple of Sacred Ashes since it's the closest and after we wrap up your problems, we'll all help you assimilate into life at Haven."

Zero stumbled and tensed at the word assimilate and looked at Danica's face shrewdly. "What that word mean here?"

"What?" Her eyes widened dramatically. "It means that you'd live here without problems, that you'd fit into the community with ease. Does it mean something else where you're from?"

Zero's shoulders hunched over. "Means I left other-world. Those called assimilated are traitors and cowards who escape into thread-worlds. Similar meaning to apostate as spoken by circle mages. Not nice thing to call someone in other-word. Can't think of word called here, but if called in other-world, is word that causes fights."

"A slur." Solas supplied.

Zero nodded. "A slur. Technically true, since I am now here."

Danica took her hands tightly. "If it is a slur, then you shouldn't say that about yourself. I promise I didn't mean it that way."

Zero patted her hand. "I know. Do not worry Danica, you're a good person. Trust you."

They parted then, Danica leaving to talk to the forge master while Solas and Zero stood near the trees. Solas taught her some new words, but soon there was no new objects to point out and he began to help her fix her grammar more.

"You mentioned you were a threader on your world." Solas began after the brief lesson. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It's similar to a historian here. I look at a certain person's thread, or the choices they make that shape the history. I studied the Hero of Ferelden and the Champion of Kirkwall previously. Was about to study the 'Herald of Andraste', starting with Danica when I woke here. Know much about Hero and Champion. Studied Hero for" she held up seven fingers" and Champion for" three fingers "years. Don't just look at one history. Are many different histories called threads, each thread has different choices and outcomes. My job was to see why people made those decisions and how they effected history and the rest of threads."

"And you don't know how you got here?"

"I have a… theory, but don't want to say it until I have more evidence."

"Are you sure? Maybe I could provide a different viewpoint."

Zero shrugged. "Before I studied Thedas, I was studying another world. I was very small then, and had only just begun my new job as a threader. I had a mentor who was named Seven, but preferred to be called Kalen. Kalen ended up assimilating into the world we studied and I was reassigned. Typically, they wouldn't reassign a threader to the same division, but they probably thought I was young enough it wouldn't matter. I think having studied two different worlds may have made me more inclined to assimilate, even though I didn't actively do it."

"Was the other world you studied much like this one?"

Zero smiled. "It was a very long time ago, but I think it might have been. I remember dragons, although they had a better relationship with the people than you do here. They bonded with each other and those who were bonded with a dragon were called dragon riders."

"It sounds like quite a world."

"It must have been, for Kalen to want to live there."

"How often do people assim – er, fall into other worlds?"

Zero smiled at his correction. "Not very often. Other than Kalen, I only know of three other people who had done it in my twenty years as a threader. One was a young girl, just before I became Captain. The old Captain was retiring and teaching me the ropes. The girl was still very new to threading when she fell. The Weavers sent for Guardians to deal with her. They slit her throat at the loom she was working at, then entered the thread and killed her there. Once they returned, they burnt the thread she was working on and carried her body away. I was told burning does not hurt the world, but erases it from our history; like she never even was there."

"Is that how you know about the metal in your leg? Your old Captain told you?"

She shook her head. "No, Kalen told me, maybe days before he assimilated. It's why I have hope he might have survived in his world."

"If he knew about it, why don't more people do it?"

"I don't think any of us know it's there. I think it's done when they brand us with our barcodes, but I don't know for sure. They probably slip it in during that time. We wouldn't know any different; we can't see when they do it."

"Hmm."

They both turned and saw Danica being laden with all the things they had come to get. "Solas, when I eventually explain this to Leliana and Danica, will you help me? Sometimes I worry that I'm not using the right words, despite how quickly I'm picking up common."

He thought for a minute. "Alright. If I am around, I will help you, da'len."

"Da'len. That means 'little one' right? I've not been da'len for a long time, but if you wish." Zero smiled.

Solas looked surprised. "Yes. Do you know some Elven then?"

"I've picked up bits and pieces of many languages through my years of studying, but I don't speak anything fluently. The most I can speak in Elven is a eulogy I learned from several Dalish Wardens, a song from the City Elf Wardens, and a lullaby the Champions listened to."

He nodded as Danica stumbled towards them, her new staff balanced precariously on a pile of new clothes. "Oi!" She called. "Help me out here! These are your bloody things y'know!"

Zero raised an eyebrow but moved to take the clothes. "All of them?"

Danica echoed her movement. "You didn't think we were going to keep you in those clothes, did you? You've been in them for the past four days, don't you want to change?"

Zero choked on her tongue, the mild amusement draining to horror as the words registered in her head. "Wait, what? Four days?"

Danica and Solas looked alarmed at the rapid shift. "Yes? You were asleep three days and woke up on the fourth. Today is the fifth day since we found you. How long did you think you were out?"

"A day, at most! Son of a whore! Andraste's sandy vagina!" Zero tried not to panic more than she already was and failed miserably. All her good grammar was going down the drain. "Listen, Danica, Solas, people who are after me? Have less time than thought. Not too far away by now, never more five days find assimilator! Explanation you wanted, have to wait until after. They see I not dead, they stop at nothing to kill me!"

"Alright Cero," Danica soothed. "It's okay, we won't let them get you. We'll take care of this right now. Solas, go tell Leliana about what's going on, and also have her people look out for any suspicious people in clothing similar to Cero's."

"Explain what all told you." Zero croaked. "Tell will explain further when get back."

Solas nodded, leaving as Danica turned back to Zero. "Okay. You come with me. We'll pick up Iron Bull and Varric to help us in case things get out of hand."

Zero nodded as Danica flagged down a scout to take her new clothing away. She desperately hoped the Inquisition's kindness to her wasn't going to be in vain. Before they headed back into Haven's gate, Danica spoke with a very tall, muscular grey man with horns, who Danica shortly introduced Zero to as The Iron Bull. Continuing through the gates, they picked up Varric. Besides Danica briefly explaining the situation to the other two, there was only silence.

They didn't run, but there was a speed and intent in their walk. It didn't take long for the four of them to reach the temple. Danica had just set up Varric and Iron Bull as lookouts when a raven circled down, leaving a note before taking back up to the sky.

"Leliana is letting us know that three suspicious people are making their way up the route to the temple. Two men, one woman; no large weapons, but dressed in clothing similar to Cero's. You might want to hurry up, you were right."

Zero quickly searched through the bodies, looking for one whose features had been burned away enough so it would trick the guardians. Finally, she found one she deemed good enough for her purposes and sank to the ground next to it. Danica passed her a dagger from her belt, and Zero began to cut into the corpse's muscle enough to where she thought the tracker would fit.

When she had made a deep enough hole, she bent her own leg at an awkward angle enough to where she could see the barcode on her calf. As she cut into her leg with the dagger, Zero tried to bite back the tears, welding her lips together with her teeth to muffle any cries of pain that escaped as she worked.

Finally, she felt the dagger scrape against the tracker and worked to wedge it out of the hole in her leg. A glint of metal shown through the blood as she drew the dagger back, which she plucked out with shaky fingers.

There's so much blood. Far too much blood. She pushed her thoughts aside in favor of shoving the tracker into the corpse's new hole, then trying to stand on her feet.

She started to stumble, but Danica caught her and a soft green glow enveloped Zero. Danica was chanting words softly. A healing spell. Oh. She could feel her skin stitching back together, and while her leg still hurt, the pain was lesser. Laughing a bit hysterically, Zero drew Danica into a tight hug.

"Boss." Iron Bull and Varric were back. "The people Leliana warned us about have just reached the bottom of the pathway. They should be here soon, so if you wanna hide, now would be the time."

"Thank you Bull, Varric." Danica replied. "There's some thick woods we can hide in so that we can see if they buy it or not. Cero, can you walk?"

"I'll try." She croaked.

She took a step forward, and when she didn't stumble too badly, she limped with the rest of them over to the tree line, slinking into the darkness. The others likewise disappeared. There were several tense moments when Zero thought she heard something approaching. Each time, she forced herself to breathe calmly through her mouth and numb her mind so she wouldn't be the one to give them away.

Finally, three figures entered her vision. They hung around the corpse Zero had planted her tracker on, not touching or otherwise engaging the dead body. One figure, which had long red hair, swooped down and plucked the tracker from the corpse, holding it up to the light.

There was a very loud sigh that echoed in the silence. "Welp. This is disappointing."