I'm really sorry about those slow updates, but I have been busy with university and my other fanfic. I decided to release smaller chapters for this fanfic, hopefully I will manage to publish more updates than before.

Fort Ghirlandaio, dining room.

Ghirlandaio fort was a military fort designed for the sole purpose of holding off enemy attacks, thus luxuries were rarely seen inside, but this changed when the fort fell under the Imperials half a year ago by Maximillian, crown prince of the Imperial kingdom and leading marshal of the Imperial forces at the Gallian invasion. He immediately ordered renovations fit for a king since he intended to make this fortress his home-base. Not only he reinforced even more the nearly impervious walls of Ghirlandaio, building outposts and gun bunkers around it he completely reworked the interior as well. He renovated one whole floor which was unused before and inside he built his own little palace; it contained the chambers for his generals and him, a war room, a big hall where he and his generals passed whatever leisure time they had and a large dining room which could hold up to thirty persons. Like every night at 8 pm he was having his dinner alongside one of his general Radi jaeger. They were eating a traditional imperial dish, called Labskaus; A dish made from corned beef, herring, mashed potatoes, and beetroot, served with a fried egg and a pickled cucumber. The time was casually passing when the door knocked twice.

"Come in" Maximiallian said in his usual emotionless voice.

"Your Majesty, General Bles has returned from the field, she's waiting to give her report outside."

"Tell her to come in." Maximillian replied.

"Yes my liege." The messenger ran off and after a while general Selvaria Bles entered the room.

She walked in a fast pace towards Maximillian and when she arrived before him, she knelt and bowed her head. "Greetings my lord, I'm sorry for interrupting your meal. I'll be quick."

"Speak Selvaria."

"Everything went according to plan, the enemy general sent us his forces on a full frontal assault as you predicted that he would do. With my powers I eliminated them all. However, we lost our frontline camp, one squad from the Gallian militia slipped by while I was fighting off the rest of the army. Due to that I was forced to withdraw our forces further inwards, to our second line defensive camp."

"Phew…seems to me that you barely escaped out of there Selvaria, I bet it was those lads from squad 7 who managed to fool you like they did before in the desert ruins." Jaeger said jokingly. Selvaria gave him an angry glance.

"No matter, they suffered extreme casualties. They won't be able to hold the camp they took from us. We will keep pressing them, Selvaria, you will lead the assault again. I leave the time and the manner of the assault to your judgement. You're dismissed."

"As you command my liege, I will organize the army and we will march again in two days from now." Maximillian didn't respond to her, instead he continued his dinner as if nothing happened.

"Selvaria, won't you join us for dinner, you must be hungry after fighting all day?" Jaeger asked her.

"I will take my dinner in my chambers, tell Lieutenant Oswald to bring it there in an hour." Jaeger nodded at her and she left the room.

"I'm finished here, will you join me later for a game of goe*, Maximillian?"

"I have work tonight." He answered flatly.

"Ok, guess I'll have to settle with Lieutenant Oswald again. But I'd like to play against you sometime, for a better challenge that is." Maximillian remained silent and Jaeger realized he wasn't in mood for chit chat, so he left.

"Good night!" he said as he walked towards the exit.

On his way to the hall, he met with Lieutenant Carl Oswald, Selvaria's newest aide. "Ah Lieutenant, I was looking for you. Selvaria wants you to bring her dinner to her room in an hour or so."

"Sir! I was looking for you too. I have a report."

Jaeger looked at him curious. "What kind of report?"

"My men captured a man snooping around our second line camp."

"And why do you tell me this?"

"Actually sir, I was on my way to give general Bles my daily report, but I thought that you should know about that one too. This man is not from around here. He was wearing medieval armor and was claiming to be from some country named Ferelden. I honestly don't know how he ended up there. "

"Ferelden? Ferelden? I think I've heard that word a long time ago, but I can't place it in my head. Are you sure he didn't say Fhirald?"

"I'm not sure sir, they told me he resisted arrest; he tried to fight our modern military rifles with his sword, he jumped right into the fray fearless for his life and they had to knock him out unconscious. One of them hit him on the jaw and he couldn't speak clearly afterwards."

"Obviously a madman, but he seems interesting. I'll go take a look at him. Where is he locked?"

"In the fort's dungeon. I don't think you'll make much sense though. He spoke of things out of fairytales. Darkspawns, archdemons, dragons and that kind of nonsense."

"Fairytale huh…anyway nice talking to you Lieutenant and don't forget to bring Selvaria her food. You know how women act on empty stomachs."

"Unfortunately, I know about the General's reaction when it comes to empty stomach." Lieutenant answered without thinking, Jaeger laughed heartily and Lieutenant blushed from embarrassment. Jaeger left whistling a tone he had long time to sing.

Fort Ghirlandaio, dungeon.

"You just activated my trap card!" The first jailor shouted out loud to his friend.

"What are talking about?"

"I don't know! I always wanted to say this when I…Ba du tss…I reveal my winning hand! Straight flush, now pay up!" He said with a smirk on his face.

"Are you two lads having fun?" A voice spoke from behind.

"Ge-general Jaeger! What a pleasant surprise! We were just having a short break. We were going straight to work right now." The first guard answered stuttering.

"It is just as he says sir. We're going now."

"Before you return to your duties and for me to forget this unfortunate incident, you would have to do me a small favor." Jaeger said with a smile on his face. "Right kids?"

"Y-yes sir, what do you want us to do?"

"A little birdie told me that you got a new prisoner today. I heard he was kind of strange, so I decided to see him. In which cell is he?"

"Ah! The new one we put him in the lower cell, because he was doing too much noise and wasn't letting the other prisoners to sleep and was distracting us from our duties." The second guard replied.

Jaeger smirked "Your duties huh? You better get back to those and don't tell anyone that I was here or…"

"Yes sir!" They said in unison as they put on their helmets and walked outside.

"Now then, let's see what our friend has to say."

Jaeger walked down one floor and afterwards followed the snoring noise that came from one of the cells. He approached the bars and looked inside he saw blonde man in prisoner rags sleeping soundly. He was blinking his eyes. "Must be dreaming…pity he won't sleep more to see the rest of the dreaming. Hey! Wake up!" The man twitched to the sound of his voice. "You! Fhiraldan!" The prisoner's eyes opened wide.

"Huh?! Who's there? What did you just say?"

"Sorry for waking you up. I'm General Radi Jaeger, One of Lord Maximilian's Drei Stern*. Though, I'm pretty sure that all these are nonsense to you since you never heard of them before."

"You're right, all these make zero sense to me. They only thing they did was to increase the headache your soldiers gave me."

"Ha, ha! Excuse them, for most of the lads here it's the first time they go to war. They tend to get a little intense if they see someone who they don't recognize. It's good though, better overcautious than dead." A few moments passed staring at each other in silence. "Speaking of dead, you're lucky they didn't put a bullet in you. I was told you were wearing an armor, but even an armor can't block a full magazine from a machine gun." Silence again. "You don't speak much huh? At least, can you tell me your name?"

"Alistair." He said flatly.

"So Alistair, what were you doing inside our camp? Didn't you know that we're in war and we don't take refugees? We're the ones invading here."

"I'm no refugee and I didn't know you were in war I was just wandering around and when I saw a human encampment I approached. If I knew this would happen I would have never come closer."

"Heh, it would probably be better for both of us." Jaeger said with a smug smirk.

"Both of us?" Alistair asked baffled.

"Well, you may not know, because you would probably be grade schooler back then, but I was once a Phiraldan General. My origins are Phiraldan, I am Phiraldan and the only reason I joined the Empire was to ensure a better future for my homeland, our homeland."

Alistair stared at him suspiciously. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not from around here. I'm Fereldan, born and raised. I was looking for my companions and I ended up to your encampment."

"There's no need to tell me that fairytale you told the others. I already know how it ends. The mighty Grey-Wardens save Ferelden from the Archdemon and his darkspawn and restore peace. It's an ancient Phiraldan myth which was later published in books and there are several editions. For instance, the hero warden was a woman according to the myth, but later they published a version in which the warden was man and others editions describe him as short man with beards or a short young woman with pointy ears. My father used to read the original to me every night when I was a kid and he was whistling every time that same tune." Jaeger began whistling nonchalantly, but he stopped as soon as he saw Alistair serious face.

"That's the Grey-Wardens hymn, how do you know it? No scratch that, you said that is a fairytale. It can't be I was just living this a few hours ago."

Jaeger smiled awkwardly. "You must have cracked your skull more than I thought lad. I came here because I thought that whoever was telling those things was probably another Phiraldan and I wanted to speak with a compatriot, but it seems you have lost any sense of logic. I'm sorry for disturbing you, good-"

Alistair interrupted him. "The Grey-Wardens! They were led by a woman, long black hair, cocky, kind of free spirit, with a strange sense of justice and supernatural powers. They travelled all around Ferelden, gathering an army which they alter used to battle the Archdemon and his darkspawn."

"Wow! You do know the tale inside and out, even I don't remember such details. But why tell me all these?"

"Because that's no fairytale. That was mine and my friend's journey I just described. And that book you said, I don't know the first thing about it or that country you said you are from ,but I do know its contents and it's an awfully strange coincidence to learn that a book was written about us. Such books are written by historians years after what happened, that means we're in the… excuse me, what year is it?"

"We're in year 1935."

"No named year! * What is going on? Where did we end up this time? Or more precisely, when? "

"Hey! Are you okay? You look pale." Jaeger asked concerned.

"Ye-Yeah, I'm alright. I just felt a little dizzy all of a sudden. All these memories flooded my mind all at once and I was overwhelmed for a moment."

"What memories?"

"I can't remember. They were fleeting. The only thing I can say for sure is that I remember my name, I remember how to use a sword, that fairytale and that I'm also a Phiraldan like you!"

Jaeger peered at him, but couldn't figure out if he was lying or is he was telling the truth; his face was a mixture of frustration, tiredness and confusion. "Look, I may be able to get you out of here and find you a post inside the fort to work for the time. And we'll see what we'll do once your memory returns."

"You'll do that much for me. I-I don't know what to say. Thank you!"

"I want from you to lay low and don't draw too much attention to yourself." Alistair nodded. "Now get some sleep, I'll send tomorrow for someone to pick you up." Jaeger turned around and walked up the stairs leaving Alistair alone in the cold dungeon.

"Phew…That worked quite well. I have to thank Sinseer for all these card games she played with me, I hope my poker face was good. Something bad is going on and I need to figure out what, before I take any further action."

Goe: It is a board game involving two players, that originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago. It was considered one of the four essential arts of a cultured Chinese scholar in antiquity. The emperor of ancient Chine demanded that all his General know how to play this game as a necessary part of their rank.

Drei Stern: The Drei Stern (also known as the Triumviri) were a group of highly skilled Imperial generals under the command of Prince Maximilian, tasked with overseeing the Imperial invasion of Gallia.

Named year: In Dragon Age universe it was common to name each passing century. The Chantry calendar measures time in "Ages". The current one is the Dragon Age, while the period before was the Blessed Age. Each Age lasts approximately a century and there have been nine so far. For instance the year the Dragon Age Origins game is taking place is year 9:30 Dragon