Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age (though I wish I did). I only own my own characters and extra ideas I put into the story.

Chapter 3 – In the Korcari Wilds

The next morning Sylverin decided to dress a little differently. She had managed to get a new set of robes from the Quartermaster the day before. It was a purple robe, simple, but more comfortable than the one she had worn in the Tower. She took her staff and got out of her tent. Duncan was already standing at his usual place, surrounded by four other men. Aedan, Alistair and two others, that Sylverin had only seen a few times the day before. After a short introduction, Duncan told them what they had to do.

"So we have to get 4 vials of darkspawn blood? What for?" Aedan asked.

"It is needed for your Joining, but I cannot tell more at this point yet." Duncan answered and Sylverin made a face. It wasn't only a whole new world for her, she also had to go into the Wilds, full of darkspawn and Maker knew what else, a few days after she had gotten away from the Circle. She wasn't happy.

"Fair enough. And what's the second task?" Aedan was probably as curious about this whole thing as she was, but apparently he was patient enough to wait for his answers.

"There was once a Grey Warden archive in the Wilds, abandoned long ago when we could no longer afford to maintain such remote outposts. It has recently come to out attention that some scrolls have been left behind, magically sealed to protect them. Alistair, I want you to retrieve these scrolls if you can."

"All right. Off we go." Aedan led them. Being a noble, he was a natural leader as well.

The Wilds were only a bit different from what Sylverin had seen over the past few days. However, there were only a few animals present and there was an uncomfortable silence when they didn't talk that made her want to run back to the usual noise of the Circle Tower. The trees were relatively healthy though some was destroyed by the darkspawn corruption already. The forest was old and there was a slight sense of magic surrounding it.

Not long after they arrived in the Wilds, they ran across a few wolves. For Sylverin, this was the first time she saw any, and it wasn't a pleasant meeting. She wasn't used to fighting and was desperately trying to stay back. The first time she used magic was when a wolf almost overwhelmed Aedan. After a moment of concentration, she lifted her staff up in the air, and winter's grasp was cast on the creature that froze and Alistair was able to kill it with one slash. The bloody scene made Sylverin sick and she had to turn away for a few seconds.

"Not used to fighting?" Alistair asked while helping Aedan up.

"I just got out of my little cage… It's not surprising." she answered with a shrug.

"Just wait till you see a darkspawn."

"I can't wait…"

Soon after their meeting with the wolves, they found a wounded soldier.

"Who… is… it? Grey Wardens?" the soldier asked, barely able to talk.

"Can you do something for him?" Alistair asked the little mage.

Sylverin shook her head. The man was badly wounded. His armour had been partially torn off and his blood was flowing freely and had already pooled on the ground. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, but there was almost nothing she could have done for him.

"I could bandage him, but I doubt that my healing magic would be strong enough to do anything good. I was always bad when it came to healing…" she said in a sad voice.

"You could always try."

"Right…" she took a deep breath and put her shaking hands onto the soldier's forehead. The warm, greenish magic did its job slowly. Some of the wounds started closing, but only a tiny amount. Sylverin got tired much too fast and she didn't want to use up all her mana. "I'm sorry, that's all I can do…" she said, stopping the magic.

"I'll bandage him up."

It didn't take too long for Alistair to put the bandages on the soldier's wounds. It was enough, however, for Sylverin to rest a while.

"Did you hear? An entire patrol of seasoned men killed by darkspawn?" Ser Jory asked. His face showed honest fear. So, it wasn't only Sylverin who was afraid.

"Calm down Ser Jory. We'll be fine if we're careful." Alistair tried to calm him down.

"Those soldiers were careful and they were still overwhelmed. How many darkspawn can the five of us slain? A dozen? A hundred? There is an entire army in these forests!"

"There are darkspawn about, but we are in no danger of walking into the bulk of the horde."

"How do you know? I.. I'm not a coward, but this is foolish and reckless… We should go back."

"Overcoming these dangers is part of our test." Aedan said trying to help Alistair.

"That's true."

"Know this. " Alistair started with a heavy sigh. "All Grey Wardens can sense darkspawn. Whatever their cunning, I can guarantee they won't take us by surprise. That's why I'm here." After these words Sylverin felt some of the weight of nervousness slip of her shoulders, as the confidence on Alistair's features made her heart flutter slightly and assertiveness seemed to flow right into her from his golden eyes.

"You see, Ser Knight, we might die, but we'll be warned about it first." Daveth said half jokingly.

"That is… reassuring?" Ser Jory still wasn't sure about the whole thing, and with this statement, Sylverin had to agree. But her confidence was boosted and she was ready to face her fears in the Wilds.

"That doesn't mean I'm here to make this easy, however. So let's get a move on." With Alistair in the lead they set off.

The darkness and corruption of the Wilds surrounded them with a feeling of unease. They walked in painful silence and with the constant feeling of being watched. Then, in the midst of darkness, Sylverin's eyes caught it: a white flower with a deep red centre.

"The flower!" she gasped and ran to it with quick, but silent steps.

"Is this the one the Kennel Master asked for?" Aedan asked.

"I believe so."

"You're not sure?"

"How could I be? I've only seen this flower in books before."

"Good point."

"Take the flower and be ready!" Alistair walked up to them. "Darkspawn are approaching."

"How many of them?" Aedan asked while Sylverin hurriedly put the flower away.

"Half a dozen, more or less."

"We can handle that!" Ser Jory said with determination in his eyes.

"I hope you are right." The little elven girl stood up, taking her staff into her hand, ready to fight.

An arrow flew past Sylverin, who squeaked in surprise. Then she saw the culprit: a twisted creature was running towards them with a bow in its hands. The skin on its body was dark, corrupted. The creature was short, but looked strong nonetheless.

Aedan cut the creature down easily as he charged at it, however there were six others following it closely so he had to rush back to his companions. Daveth kept on shooting arrows, but the darkspawn seemed to simply ignore them and just kept on hurrying towards Jory, Aedan and Alistair.

"More are coming!" they heard Alistair's voice, just before their eyes caught another bunch of twisted creatures running down a hill towards them.

"Half a dozen? Where is this half a dozen?" Ser Jory shouted back while he slew a darkspawn that got too close to him.

Alistair and Aedan were trying to keep the creatures as far from Daveth and Sylverin as it was possible, while Daveth was trying to shoot all that came through, without much success.

Sylverin was so shocked at the darkspawn that she couldn't move. She had never in her life killed anyone and the first fight she had been in was at the repository of the Circle Tower about a week before. She was not ready for this fight.

Right at the end of these thoughts she found herself looking at a darkspawn, greater than all that were coming before. The creature was running towards her, swinging its huge two handed hammer, just about to hit her.

"No!" she reacted surprisingly quickly. With a wave of her staff, a glyph activated below her. A little star-like shape surrounded by a circle with four spikes. The darkspawn, the moment it stepped on the circle, flew back, painfully crushing against a tree. Sylverin could hear its bones breaking, but the creature did not react to the pain. "Daveth, come here!" she directed the rogue, who did as he was told. "Alistair, Aedan, get closer together!" the moment they stood back to back, she activated another glyph. This time it was a circle in the middle, four spikes coming from it, surrounded by two fine lined circles and with two dots: one in front of Alistair, the other in front of Aedan. She then placed two more of these glyphs on the ground and when two darkspawn came rushing towards the two men, they were both paralysed and a last circle remained below the two men.

"Nice!" Alistair complimented her. "What the…" he started as his sword started flaming.

"Don't throw it away. The flames can't hurt you!" she answered. The battle was easily won by the recruits and Alistair. Sylverin's back-up spells saving them a lot of trouble.

"Are you all right?" Daveth asked her. "You are shaking!"

"I'm good… I'll get used to this… right?" but she accepted his help to carry her over to the melee fighters.

"I have to admit, I was half expecting you to just run away in fear…" Aedan said as he patted her head. "You were great!"

"Thanks, but can we stop for a bit?" she asked Alistair and he nodded.

"Daveth, could you look around a bit? Try not to be seen, but we need to know the situation." Alistair asked Daveth, who nodded and started going "And don't get lost!" the man laughed and disappeared into the darkness of the Wilds.

Some time later, he came back. By that time, Sylverin had managed to calm down somehow. They'd collected the four vials of darkspawn blood as well.

"I found some interesting things." Daveth said as he walked up.

"So interesting as to make you bleed in joy?" Sylverin asked looking at him. His leather armour was partially ripped and his abdomen had a deep cut.

"Hehh… I was attacked by some wolves. But, I found these." he gave three letters and a two handed sword to Alistair. "And, according to one of the letters, there is a hidden box somewhere here…" he looked around, as he said it. They were at a camp, previously abandoned, probably by the person who wrote the letter. The fire that was burning before the darkspawn attack was only smoking now. And that was what Daveth was looking for. Under the fireplace, there was a little hole and in that, a box. "The man who wrote one of the letters, or to be more precise, two of the letters, asked the finder of the letters to bring this box to his wife."

"If we survive the main fighting, we can do that." Alistair said, taking the letters.

"I also found the location of a chasind cache, but it's surrounded by darkspawn and I didn't want to risk going in there, no matter how good my stealth is."

"Wise." Alistair said with a nod. "Can you heal him?" he asked Sylverin.

"I can close the cut a bit, but it won't be perfectly healed. I'm not a healer…"

"Just try it."

"All right."

The healing was almost as bad as last time, but the wound closed enough to heal completely with a smaller healing poultice poured onto it.

"Is that wise? What if we won't have enough later?" Aedan asked.

"I can make more any time, as long as we have some elfroot." She answered.

"All right. You know what you can do…"

The rest of the trip in the Wilds was uneventful, until they reached the camp where the darkspawn were, surrounding the chasind cache. There was a darkspawn emissary as well. Well hidden it attacked Sylverin from the shadows where she couldn't see it. A Winter's Grasp hit her, the ice painfully cutting her skin, robes, injuring her in a way that it felt like she was burning, rather than freezing from the ice.

She hissed in pain and tried to locate the darkspawn, but could not pinpoint its location. But then, she felt a very strong shockwave coming towards her, from the other side of the camp. She could feel the templar magic in it. All the darkspawn were knocked down and the emissary fall out from the bushes, stunned, out of mana. Sylverin did not wait for it to regain consciousness. She punched into the air, towards the darkspawn and a huge rock fist flew towards it, hitting it as it collapsed onto the ground with probably shattered bones.

The fight was over. While Sylverin was occupied with the emissary, Daveth, Aedan and Jory finished off the rest of the darkspawn. Alistair, on the other hand, was surrounded by a huge amount of templar magic, which was hidden until now.

"You are a templar!" she took a few hurried steps back from Alistair. So that's why she felt the light templar magic. But the fact that Alistair used his templar powers so close to her, really wasn't a good idea. She was not only angry, but deeply disappointed as well. Mostly in herself. How could she not realise this sooner?

"Calm down. He hasn't done anything bad to you, has he?" Aedan walked up to her.

"That doesn't change the fact that he is a templar!"

"Sylverin, I know that bad things happened to you, but…"

"No! I don't care what you think! I know he hasn't done anything, but hiding his powers and then using it so close to me, is not what I expect from someone watching my back! Especially not from a templar!"

She did not expect them to understand. How could they? Her life was different from theirs. She had lost her powers and her life to the templars. If Alistair had told her he was one, everything would have been different. She might have ignored him, but at this moment, she can only hate. Controlling her emotions was always a difficult task when she got so mad because of templars. Even now, if her will wasn't strong enough, she could easily fall prey to a demon.

"I…" Alistair started, but she turned away.

"Let's just get those treaties."

They had another fight. This time she couldn't concentrate on the fight at all. All she thought about was Alistair and when he would use one of his templar powers against her. She was almost hit by an arrow and a Hurlock decided that it was fun attacking her, even though she had a Repulsion Glyph below her and thus the darkspawn was only hurled away and running back until Aedan finally slew it.

"Sylverin…" he walked up to her.

"I don't want to hear it. Let's get this over with." She walked to the ruins and her eye caught a chest immediately. It look pretty beaten up and broken. "It's empty," Sylverin said looking into the chest.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Sylverin turned around quickly. So, it wasn't the Wilds that were surrounded by magic, it was this woman who was watching them. "Are you a vulture, I wonder? A scavenger poking amidst a corpse whose bones were long since cleaned? Or merely an intruder, coming into these darkspawn filled Wilds of mine in search of easy prey. What say you, hmm? Scavenger or intruder?"

The woman obviously preferred to talk to another woman, as she was looking directly into Sylverin's eyes while she talked.

"Neither. The Grey Wardens once owned this tower." she answered.

"'Tis a tower no longer. The Wilds have obviously claimed this desiccated corpse." She walked past them onto a smaller hillside, now standing there looking down upon them. "I have watched your progress for some time. 'Where do they go,' I wondered, 'Why are they here?' And now you disturb ashes none have touched for so long. Why is that?"

"Don't answer her. She looks Chasind, and that means others may be nearby." Alistair whispered from behind her and it made her twitch. She heard Alistair take a few hurried steps back, probably accepting the fact that he wouldn't be liked by this mage for certain.

"Oh, you fear barbarians will swoop down upon you?" Morrigan made fun of him.

"Yes, swooping is bad." he answered.

"She's a Witch of the Wilds, she is! She'll turn us into toads!" Daveth interrupted. Sylverin sighed. What was it with humans and toads when it came to magic?

"Witch of the Wilds? Such idle fancies, those legends. Have you no minds of your own?" Morrigan shook her head in disbelief. She had probably encountered this reaction many times already. "You there!" she looked at Sylverin again. "Women do not frighten like little boys. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine."

"I'm Sylverin Surana."

"You may call me Morrigan, if you wish. Shall I guess your purpose? You sought something in that chest, something that is here no longer?"

"'Here no longer?' You stole them, didn't you? You're… some kind of… witch-thief!" Alistair had a hard time finding the words he was looking for and Sylverin found herself holding back laughter as she heard the end of that sentence.

"How very eloquent. How does one steal from dead men?" Morrigan asked

"Quite easily, it seems. Those documents are Grey Warden property, and I suggest you return them."

"I will not, for 'twas not I who removed them. Invoke a name that means nothing here any longer, if you wish, I am not threatened." Alistair was about to shout back an answer to that, but Sylverin decided that it was better if she was the one talking to Morrigan.

"Then who removed them?" she asked.

"'Twas my mother, in fact."

"Can you take us to her?"

"Now there is a sensible request." Morrigan chuckled "I like you."

"I'd be careful." Alistair joined in again "First it's 'I like you..' but then 'Zap!' Frog time."

"She'll put us all in the pot, she will. Just you watch!" Daveth panicked.

"If the pot's warmer than this forest, it'll be a nice change." Jory joined in finally.

"Follow me then, if it pleases you." Morrigan left at a pace fast enough to follow, but hard to determine exactly where they are going as they had to concentrate on not losing sight of her.

"Are you sure this is wise?" Aedan asked Sylverin

"We don't have a choice. Duncan asked us to get the Treaties."

"But we are talking about a Witch!"

"So what? Their magic isn't much different from mine. And we have a templar to watch our back…"

"About that…"

"No! I don't want to hear it."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence. They soon reached a hut in a clearing with an old woman waiting outside it.

"Greetings, Mother. I bring before you five Grey Wardens, who…" Morrigan started but was interrupted by the old woman.

"I see them girl. Hmm. Much as I expected."

"Are we supposed to believe you were expecting us?" Alistair asked in disbelief.

"You are required to do nothing, least of all believe. Shut one's eyes tight or open one's arms wide…either way, one's a fool!" she replied then looked at the five guests. "So, two Grey Wardens leading three recruits. Interesting combination, isn't it?"

"Two? Alistair is the only Grey Warden here." Sylverin said surprised and shot a glance at the blonde Warden who gulped.

"Hmm? Interesting." Flemeth said looking at Sylverin with great interest. The elven girl took a few steps back just to crash into Aedan who was standing behind her.

"Ouch… I'm sorry…" she apologised.

"She's a witch, I tell you! We shouldn't be talking to her!" Daveth spoke up.

"Quiet, Daveth! If she's really a witch, do you want to make her mad?" Jory shouted at him angrily.

Flemeth laughed "There is a smart lad. Sadly irrelevant to the larger scheme of things, but it is not I who decides. Believe what you will."

"And what of you?" Flemeth asked Sylverin "Does her elven mind give you a different viewpoint? What do you believe?"

Sylverin looked at Flemeth. Was there anything left for her to believe in? She didn't know anything anymore. "I'm not sure what to believe…"

"A statement that possesses more wisdom than it implies. Be always aware…or is it oblivious? I can never remember. So much about you is uncertain…and yet I believe. Do I? Why, it seems I do!"

"So... This is a dreaded Witch of the Wilds?" Alistair sounded amused as he looked at Aedan.

"Witch of the Wilds, eh?" Flemeth sounded entertained and glanced at Morrigan, "Morrigan must have told you that. She fancies such tales, though she would never admit it! Oh, how she dances under the moon!"

"They did not come to listen to your wild tales, Mother." Morrigan reminded her.

"True, they came for their treaties, yes? And before you begin barking, your precious seal wore off long again. I have protected these." She went into her hut to get the treaties and came back quickly. She handed the treaties to Sylverin. Why was Flemeth so interested in her? She was just another mage raised in the Circle of Magi. There was nothing special about her.

"You…oh. You protected them?" Alistair had been about to accuse Flemeth of stealing the treaties when he realised what she actually said. He looked embarrassed.

Flemeth raised a brow at Alistair, "And why not? Take them to your Grey Wardens and tell them this Blight's threat is greater than they realise!"

"Thank you for returning them." Sylverin said while looking at Aedan, confused.

"Such manners. Always in the place you least expect it. Oh, do not mind me. You have what you came for!"

"Time for you to go, then." Morrigan seemed content with having her guests leave.

"Do not be ridiculous, girl." Flemeth pointed at the Wardens. "These are your guests."

"Oh, very well. I will show you out of the woods. Follow me."

Many thanks to Flyte9393 for correcting my mistakes.

And thanks all reviewers for commenting something on the story :)