Keeper Macha was seated in what was formerly a tree, crafted by skilled Dalish hands it was now an elegant throne which the Keeper sat in when she was to attend important business. The throne resembled a growing sapling, with braches reaching out into the sky, each branch was carved with what little Elven writing the Dalish knew of and at the tips of the branches there was always an animal or symbol of the elven gods elegantly carved. Whilst Taal was amazed by the beauty of such an item, he was also a little saddened, anything Elven reminded him of how their past had been taken from them, their history, their gods, their language and even their stories had been lost due to the accursed humans.

Keeper Macha had heard of the news and was contemplating what to do, her elderly face was covered in tattoos of arrows and prey being hewn down, this was because she was the leader of the Iyanden clan of the Dalish Elves, their founders had always warned of the humans and had always prepared, never were they content with what the humans had given them as they always knew their greed and hatred would lead them to return and claim what had been theirs. Currently their clan occupied a position of prestige among the other clans for one simple reason, they had been right.

'You say they had some sort of dark ritual' the Keeper asked.

'Yes Keeper, the thing they created' Taal shuddered 'I don't want to describe it, suffice to say it was not a natural thing, I also heard they plan to attack the clan. Use us as what the leader called 'test subjects' I say we should retaliate immediately! Ensure that these pathetic humans will not live to trouble us!'

The Keeper pondered this for a moment, then she stood up perfectly straight, she was taller than the average elf and her stern gaze ensured her authoritarian nature was obeyed.

'No Taal, it is pointless to risk Dalish lives in a conflict that is not worthwhile, we will move immediately and go north, there is little left for us in this territory anyway'

'But Keeper! If we leave now what is to stop them from chasing us to the ends of the earth!'

'Taal you are being foolish, we will leave immediately, I will send word to the hunters for one last hunt, meanwhile you are to stay in the camp, consider this punishment for wandering farther then I gave permission'

'Keeper, it is you who are being foolish!' Taal shouted, not caring about the looks he was getting, the Keeper was the respected head of the clan and it was only proper to be polite and obedient to his or her wishes, but there had always been some friction between Keeper Macha and Taal. Macha had been wary of the humans but wise enough not to pick fights with them, Taal had been different. The Iyanden clan were by nature xenophobic of humans, but Taal had pushed even these limits, he always advocated intolerance and violence against the humans in revenge for what they had done for Elven kind, he was no too polite of the non-Dalish elves either. He saw the 'flat-ears' as they were commonly known as weak for their ancestors decision to submit to the human rule.

Keeper Macha gave a stare that would immobilise a lesser minded individual 'Taal, you are letting your own desire's cloud your vision. It is not the way of the Dalish to fight battles we cannot win, if we stay we will lose valuable lives for no good reason, tell me Taal, do you believe you know better than your Keeper?'

Their eyes locked momentarily, but then Taal backed down, the Keeper had been a source of authority and wisdom, even before Taal was born.

'No Keeper, I shall do as you ask' he reluctantly spoke, the Keeper nodded, 'Hunters, prepare for the final hunt! Anything that cannot be taken must be left behind! Everybody else, prepare to pack up and move out with all hast-

She was cut off by a scream, all heads turned towards the source of the noise.

There were several bandits running in towards the camp, all of them were heavily armed and armoured with well made gear, they advanced towards the tents with vicious looking cutlasses, spears and axes, and some of them carried heavy nets weighted down so it would be difficult to escape from them. They were chucking these nets over Dalish children and adults who had not yet reacted, leading them were a few men dressed in the blood red robes, they were chanting strange words that made Taal's ears ache and strange blood red wisps, almost like floating drops of blood, were circulating between their fingers.

Taal did not waste a moment of time, he swiftly picked up his bow and was already loading an arrow by the time they had noticed him, the first bandit was down before he knew Taal was there, he fell with an arrow through his eye, his companion tried charging Taal and received an arrow to the leg for his troubles, he feel down screaming in pain and was finished by a Dalish knife to the throat as Taal ran towards his captured clan mates, he had his knives and was about to cut them loose when a red bolt impacted against his chest and propelled him to the other side of the camp, he hit a tree painfully and lay there crumpled against it, he was in a pathetic fatal position as the spell had left a lasting impact upon his bloodstream, the blood in his veins seemed to write as if it was trying to escape his body, Taal could only watch through pain filled eyes what happened next.

By now the other clan members had reacted and were filling the bandits with scores of arrows, scores fell with many shafts embedded in their bodies, many of the bandits had broken off and tried rushing the Dalish ranks, some managed to break through but only caused minor wounds before being cut down by the skilled Dalish warriors. But for all their skill the Dalish were having difficultly rescuing the captives, the remaining bandits had formed a circle with the prisoners at the front to be used as potential targets, the volley of arrows ceased in number, the hunters were fearful of hitting their own. Most of the remaining bandits had shields so the arrows were proving to be useless, the Dalish warriors advanced on them with swords at the ready, the Dalish did not like axes or spears as they found them too brutish and barbaric.

They fought fiercely as they engaged the bandits, parrying thrusts and countering with deadly accuracy, a lifetime of living by their wits had made the Dalish into fearsome warriors, and these humans would have to learn the hard way not to mess with them. Many of the nets were cut loose and the captives freed, it looked as if the Dalish were going to earn a victory when the human came.

One of the humans, obviously the commander of the bandits came into the fray, wielding a massive great sword ploughed into the ranks of the Dalish, he moved with deadly efficiency, severing limbs and hacking off heads, the Dalish could not hope to best this newcomer and so they backed off. They were also beginning to feel the effects of the wizard's foul magic, many warriors fell clutching their stomachs as this foul magic weaved its effect, many warriors began clawing at themselves, desperate to get this boiling blood out of their veins.

'Enough of this!' the Keeper roared, as she blasted the bandit group with powerful spells of nature, the bandits screamed as rocks appeared from nowhere to crush them, or roots sprang from the earth to trip and strangle them.

'Everyone get back!' she roared 'Withdraw! Save anyone that can be saved and get back!'

Slowly the warriors began retreating dragging anyone who could be rescued along with them; vengeful Dalish arrows ensured they could not be stopped. The bandits seemed to accept that nothing further could be done and began to retreat. The Dalish did not make this easy for them, their hides were peppered with arrows and a few more fell before they were finally out of range.

Keeper Macha helped Taal to his feet and used some of her magic to heal his wounds, compared to the pain of the blood magic, the warming glowing of the Keepers hand was a welcome relief indeed.

'How are you?'

'A little better, but still not great' Taal rasped weakly.

'I've dulled the pain a bit, but we'll have to get you to the healer, you'll be out for a few days before you're in optimal condition'

Taal moaned with pain as he was dragged to the beds in the corner of space that was the healing camp, the healer moved to Taal and started feeding him a few poultices and doing his best to tidy Taal's wounds. Once he was satisfied that Taal was stable he moved on to another patient, under emergency situations such as this the healer only gave his experienced attention to the most severe patients, any non-essential ones who weren't on the brink of death were attended to by his apprentices.

Taal closed his eyes as the effects of the poultices began to wash over him, the feeling in his body numbed and he began to feel he was no longer a part of it. He opened his eyes briefly as the Keeper strode up to him.

'How many?' he asked.

The Keeper, knowing the extent of Taal's concern for his clan mates did not lie to him 'Fifteen killed, three more fatally wounded and dying, twenty-five missing and about seven minor wounds.'

Taal sighed with despair and laid back, the Keeper spoke again.

'Original orders stand, we are to leave as soon as everyone is recovered'

Taal's head snapped painfully towards the Keeper 'our kin have been taken! We can't just abandon them!'

'Enough Taal! I have made my decision! We will leave! Now get some rest'

Taal was too wounded to argue, he lay back as the poultices dragged him into a restless sleep.

The Palace of Empress Celine (Val Rouyux)

Marjorline strode regally into the palace of the Empress; she made careful attention to ensure that she looked every inch the noble, the Empress, much like all of the Orlesian upper classes paid the most attention to the most important looking people. Behind her were all her fellow conspirators, also finely dressed in lavish silks of red, different parts of their clothing had different shades of red and they were deliberately loose so it gave the appearance of a flowing fountain of red wine, such was the fashion at the moment. She was pleased with the looks she got, looks of interest and attention, even the noble empress was impressed enough to cock an eyelash.

Empress Celeine was a beautiful creature, a perfectly round and flawless pink face with bright sapphire eyes. Her hair was like spun gold and fell gracefully down her body in a shower of beautiful locks, complementing her hair was her outfit, an unwritten law of Orlesian royalty was that they should sport at least one item of gold. She wore several layers of gold cloth which got paler with each passing layer; the least visible layers were gold dyed with a shade of brown so she looked the entire world like a golden autumn leaf. Marjorline made a graceful bow at her feet, as did all of her fellow noblemen, the empress raised her hand slightly, those who were wise in the ways of Orlesian court knew that this was an indication that they had permission to stand up and speak.

'My most holy Empress, I believe i have a most grand idea to further the power of our mighty empire!' a bold statement and one that did its job perfectly, the Empress looked positively intrigued. Whilst no one would dare to speak it out loud, the Orlesian Empire was staring to weaken, it had suffered various defeats in its northern territory's at the hands of Nevarra, and expansion in the north was limited by the Tventer Imperium, fortunately the Imperium's attention was occupied with the Qunari. Ever since what was infamously known as the Fereldan revolution, expansion in the south had been difficult, trade links had been forged with the free nation, but there was much more profit to be gained by conquering the land. It was also a matter of pride; many Orlesians were unwilling to accept that what they perceived as a backward and simplistic nation managed to beat an advancing nation such as theirs.

'Tell me then, what this idea is?' the Empress spoke softly.

'Ferelden, it has been severely weakened from the Blight, I suggest that we prepare our armies and take control of it now, I give you my word Empress, there will never be a greater opportunity to take Ferelden, it is quite simply a case of now or never'.

The Empress looked intrigued, she had lost her farther in the pivotal battle of that uprising, he was personally slain by Loghian, and although she had long made peace with the new King Alistair, the desire for revenge burned in her still and Marjorline took full advantage of this.

'Your farther was a most noble man, it was ill fitting of him to die at the hands of a peasant lord, i say let him be avenged, when we have gained victory we can erect a large statue of him in Denerim, to remind those peasants' that they cannot hope to destroy such a noble and proud lineage.'

That statement did the trick; the Empress had a look of bold determination on her face as she waved her attendant over.

'I am satisfied, I hereby sanction permission for this invasion to commence, the funding of this nation and its empire will go towards conquering the kingdom of Ferelden' she whispered this quietly, she always made her announcements in public long after her plans had been put into action. 'Marjorline, I also give permission for you and your fellow idealists to plan the invasion of Ferelden, succeed and I guarantee the rewards will be great, fail and I will be most unmerciful, you may leave now' she dismissed them with a curt movement of her hand. Marjorline bowed and left the throne room with her fellow conspirators behind her. Once they were safely out of hearing range they chuckled themselves silly with glee, they were going to conquer a weakened nation and earn rewards to rival a king's. One simple task and they were going to amass wealth to keep even the greediest individual satisfied for life, for Orlais things simply could not be better.

A few days later

For Krieger and his companions, things simply could not be worse, rather then crossing the difficult mountains out of Orzammar they had opted to take a quicker route through the trading roads, they should have known things were going to easy. Because of the blight's devastation, lawlessness and banditry were rife in the nation, even after a few years the situation had not improved, and a Dwarf lord with only two guards made an inviting target, so they had been relentlessly attacked by bandit's, raiders and all other kinds of fools intent on looting and slaughter. Fortunately Krieger and his friends were not new recruits in warfare, and the bandits had been repulsed, though with great difficultly. Torn by days of constant battle and little sleep or sustenance, the effects were beginning to tell upon the three Dwarves, so much so that even Krieger was beginning to have his doubts whether they would make it to Denerim. They had chosen to venture into a forest in the hope that there would be no more bandits, but it turned out that the forest was used by many bandit gangs as a hideout, in addition to the many wild animals and large gangs; this entire journey was looking to be one disaster after another. It was with incredible weariness that Rat inspected some marks in the mud.

'Yes sir, these are the same tracks of the things that attacked us last night, I'm sure of it'

Krieger sighed 'wolves again, perfect, let's hope they won't find us', at that moment a pack of wolves crept out of the nearby foliage, their maws slavering and growling with razor sharp teeth.

'You just had to say it' Gorim moaned as he withdrew his sword and shield. The first of the wolves leapt with a furious cry at the least armoured of the three, Rat. But he reacted quickly, ducking and rolling forward with perfect timing so that the wolf could not change its course, when Rat rose it was in a firing position, crossbow at the ready, the wolf had barley landed when a bolt went straight through its neck, it fell in a crumpled heap. Rat rubbed his crossbow with satisfaction, they were the only ranged weapons that gained favour with the Dwarves, the longbow was disliked because of its length, with made it impractical for the shorter race to carry, and the short-bow was seen as flimsy and weak. Two more wolves made a charge this time at Krieger, the first one jumped but fell when Gorim hit it in the side with his shield, it landed in a crumpled heap and Gorim's mace ensured it would not rise again. At the same time the other wolf was preparing to strike but Krieger had raised his great-sword and uttered a bellowing war cry, this was so fierce it made the wolves furthest from Krieger back away and the assaulting wolf stand still in terror, Krieger finished it swiftly with one stroke of his weapon, by now Rat had returned to their side and stood aiming at any creature foolish enough to come near.

The wolf leader had sent the weakest of the pack merely to test the strength of these intruders, it now realised that such warriors needed the whole pack to bring them down, it gave a roar and many wolves charged.

Krieger was in them first, roaring and bringing Starfang down on one unfortunate creature, it was split cleanly in half, another one came in from the side and found Krieger's fist, over the years of fighting Krieger had moulded into an incredibly strong Dwarf, and with a gauntlet made of dragonbone plate it was equivalent to being hit by an armoured meteor, the wolf was blown backwards, its jaw in ruins. A large wolf growled at him but a crossbow bolt to the eye ruined its chance of attack, one disadvantage of the crossbow was that it did not have the firing rate of the longbow, so Rat made up for this by dodging and waving around the attacks, and firing only at the strongest looking wolves. Gorim was like an armoured castle, no wolf could get past his shield and any who tried were crushed by his mace. Krieger resolved to end this swiftly, he hacked a path to his main rival and bellowed out a challenge, the pack leader accepted with a growl and ran towards him, it was swifter then its comrades and managed to get its teeth into Krieger's shoulder plate, he hammered it with powerful blows from his fists in revenge for the dents in his armour, this wolf was a resilient one and took many punches before it let go. It doubled back and ran again, this time Krieger was ready, he dodged the blow and struck back with all force, the pack leader howled as its leg was severed, Krieger rashly assumed that it was dead. But the beast managed to limp up and swiftly bite Krieger on the arm, it did not cause a major wound but it made Krieger wince nonetheless. He grabbed Starfang and bellowed an oath in the Dwarven tongue, it flashed in an ark of silver and crimson and ended the pack leader's life, he had some difficultly in removing the severed head with its teeth still embedded in his arm, without the leader guiding them the few survivor's nerves failed them and they fled, Rat ensuring that they did not return with a few bolts in their rears. Krieger took one last look at the corpse of the pack leader 'you were a worthy adversary' he said before banging his fist across his heart twice, a Dwarven sign of respect for a fallen warrior. Krieger turned and sighed as he saw more trouble 'out of the fryer and into the fire' he grumbled as men came wandering out of the forest.

These men looked fairly heavily armed and obviously knew the ways of the forest, Krieger immediately guessed the well made weapons and arms meant one things, they were skilled fighters to be able to afford such things. Their leader spoke in a lavish voice.

'My my dear sirs congratulations, you must be skilled warriors to send an entire wolf pack fleeing for the hills, but tell me, what would such warriors be doing deep in this forest?'

'We are but travellers' Krieger answered, Rat and Gorim looked at him, wondering why he was not giving the real reason, but Krieger bade them to be silent.

'Come now, such heavily armed warriors would not be travelling through this wood, what is your real purpose?'

'Nothing we wish to discuss with you'

'Tut tut, such bad manners when we offer a service, pray tell me, do you know the way out of this forest?'

The three Dwarves were silent, the leaders face lit up, 'well then, this is where we can help! We are experienced guides around this area, and we can guide you out of the forest safely for a small fee of course, if we were to offer our services for free then we would be as poor as beggars.'

Rat looked to accept but Krieger stopped him 'there highwayman lad' he warned.

The highwayman was a considerably more intelligent version of a bandit, he was smart enough to know that intimidating people for money was easier then taking it by force, as such highwayman were usually wealthier then common bandits, tougher as well. The leader heard Krieger and scowled.

'Alas we have been discovered, so you have seen through our little pantomime, never mind, the offer still stands, give us a few sovereigns and we will tell you the best way to get out of this forest, a good deal don't you agree'

'We're not scared of you' Gorim growled.

'Clearly, but you are wounded and battle weary, a fairly easy picking for us see, so I think you'll agree it would be wise for you to take our offer'

'Thank you, but we must pass, and be aware you are talking to the Hero of Ferelden, I slew an archdeamon in single combat, a gang of ruffians isn't a challenge to me' Krieger warned, but he wasn't totally sure of it, he was very tired after all, the highwayman sensed this too.

'Oh what a shame, oh well, you'll regret this my foolish friend' he smiled wickedly, his cohorts drew their weapons and advanced with murder in their eyes, but before they could an arrow pierced the head of one of them, the others stopped, momentarily confused by this.

Krieger did not hesitate to take advantage of this, he ran and beheaded two of the bandits with Starfang, the other tried to attack but Krieger deflected, and buried Starfang in the bandit's chest. The arrows kept coming, felling more bandits, they yelled as arrows struck in eyes or spaces in armour with pinpoint accuracy. Krieger kept up the pace, Starfang felling bandits with ruthless vigour, it cut through armour as though it were silk. Soon all that was left was the leader; he cowered away with his hands raised in surrender.

'Please sir! I yield! We have been defeated! I will leave!'

Krieger grunted 'go! And never trouble us again!' he ordered.

The bandit leader turned to flee but Krieger's order was obeyed sooner than either of them realised, an arrow came speeding out and struck the Highwayman in the back of the head, he fell without a sound. Krieger shrugged with indifference to his fate and shouldered Starfang, 'good job with those arrows lad' he congratulated Rat but was greeted by looks of surprise.

'Paragon, Gorim and I didn't do a thing; we don't know where the arrows came from'

Their answer came with a rustling of tree leaves, they looked up and a vicious looking elf sat there, his armour was dirty and dyed a dark green to camouflage himself in the trees, over it he wore a dark green cloak with a matching hood. Little of his face could be seen but Krieger managed to make out an arrow tattoo on his right cheek. He watched them with predator like eyes, his bow strung and ready to fire, he lowered his bow when he saw that they were not human.

'What do we have here? Too well armed to be bandits, too rich looking to be scavengers and not a human amongst them' the elf mused, more to himself then the three dwarves.

Krieger cleared his throat 'pardon me, but would I be speaking to a Dalish elf?'

The elf cocked an eyebrow and replied 'you would, not that it's any business of yours' he said in a mocking tone. Whilst Dalish were enemies with humans, they were relatively indifferent to Dwarves, their race had done nothing to help nor hinder them, but like anything strange, the Dalish were cautious with them, they never knew when one could be trouble.

'Tell me Dwarf, what brings you here, this is Dalish territory'

'Last time I checked this territory belonged to the kingdom of Ferelden' Gorim stated, the elf raised his bow 'our clan settled here, this makes it our territory until we have moved on, care to dispute this Dwarf' the elf challenged.

Krieger stepped in before things got messy 'we are Dwarven emissary's on a mission to Ferelden's capital, we are friends of the Dalish and mean no harm'

The elf scoffed 'friends! The Dalish have no friends other then ourselves, contact with the humans has shown us this, now leave here at once!'

'Who are you to command us' Gorim challenged 'there are three of us and one of you', Krieger stopped him raising his weapon 'you may want to recount that' he warned, as soon as he said that many more Dalish hunters merged out of the forest, all carrying bows and all aimed at them. Krieger spoke again.

'I have no desire for conflict, I am Krieger Auduecan, I fought alongside the Dalish at the battle of Denerim and saved your clan from the werewolf curse, surely you have heard of me'

The elves talked among themselves, finally the elf who had first appeared spoke up 'that was not our clan, but we have heard the tale from them, and you match their description, we also fought at Denerim, if you are who you say you are this means you are a Grey Warden, correct?'

'That is correct'

'This means you are a fearsome warrior' the elf said to himself as an idea formed in his mind 'I have a deal for you Dwarf, we will heal your wounds and guide you out of this forest, in return you will provide a service for us, is that a deal?'

'We shouldn't allow any distractions from our main quest Paragon' Gorim mentioned.

'You could always navigate the forest yourself' the elf mocked.

This was one offer that Krieger could not refuse, 'very well, I accept your deal elf'

'Good, follow us, but remember, our arrows are trained on you and will not stop until the Keeper says so, come' the elf ordered.