This is the second ... chapter... as it were of Nahalanee's story. Title explains alot. I was trying to come up with something other then standing awkwardly in wieseppt fortress with duncan. It seemed an odd fade dream for any origin anyway.

Gorim walked into the sparring room and ducked just in time as one of
Trian's custom forged axes flew over his head and hit the wall behind him.
He had to chuckle as he looked at the scene in front of him, Trian was on
the ground and Nahalanee stood over him, the tip of her sword at his throat.

"By the Ancestors, you will be a fighter yet my dear sister." Trian bellowed
as Nahalanee stepped back and offered her brother a hand. She helped him up
and he laughed, clapping a heavy hand hard on her shoulder nearly knocking
her off her feet.

"Now if we could just get you to use a proper ax."

"Not if the Ancestors themselves commanded me!" She snapped at him, had it not
been for the smile that lit up her face, you would have thought her truly offended
by the idea. Trian laughed and clapped her on the shoulder again. "Come let us have a
drink." He walked over to the table in the far corner were Behlen was sitting watching
the sparring session.

"Behlen what do you think of our sister, she will be a great commander one day,
don't you think?" Behlen grinned and raised his mug "Indeed, to the next commander,
may she kill three times the darkspawn of any other dwarf!"

Nahalanee was putting her swords back on the weapon racks when she heard the toast
behind her and froze. She decided against returning the blades to the weapon rack, and
instead slid them one at a time into the scabbards across her back.

She turned and looked at the picture before her, something didn't seem quite right.
As she looked from one brother to the other, she felt a small pang in her heart.
Sadness and hatred, one emotion for each brother.

"Come sister, have a drink. Ah Gorim, you have come to watch your love best her
brother again have you?" Trian bellowed toward the door. He's too happy, she thought.
Nahalanee looked over, Gorim stood leaning against the wall smiling and watching her.
A wave of heart break and guilt coursed through her causing her to visibly shudder.

"Indeed, she has become a very skilled warrior, it is an honor fighting at her side."
He saluted and walked over to her giving her a quick peck on the cheek. She shuddered again.

He grabbed her hand and led her to the table where Trian handed them both a mug. "To
my sister the next commander of the armies, and to her second, soon to be my
brother-in-law if I hear correctly!" Nahalanee looked at the contents of her mug and
grimaced, we never drink this... stuff, she thought and set her mug down.

"Gorim is Warrior caste, our father the King would never allow it, nor would you."
She looked at Trian suspiciously.

She groaned and mashed the heels of her hands against her temples as a wave of pain
shot through her head. She shook it off and looked up again, the air around her seemed
to shimmer, much like the air above the iron forges, but it was green, was that possible?
She closed her eyes for a moment lowering her head trying to think. Everything was
cloudy.

Demons a small voice seemed to whisper to her. Demons in the circle. Her eyes flew open
as she felt a hand on her arm "Are you ok my love?" Gorim asked.

She pulled her arm away and stepped back while simultaneously pulling both of her
weapons. She thought, I was in the circle trying to save the mages, the demon, the
demon... Had she not been witnessing it right now, she would have laughed had
anyone told her this could happen, a dwarf in the fade, that realm of human dreams.

"Who are you and what have you done to my companions?" Gorim moved back and joined
her two brothers, no not brothers, the other two... things at the table. All three
of them were watching her now. It was the one who looked like Behlen who spoke.

"Are you not happy here? Is this not what you want, a happy life with your brothers
and your lover?"

"You are not my brother, and he is not my... He is not Gorim."

"You could stay here with us, away from the fighting and be happy. Don't resist."

Her left hand faltered slightly, her blade nearly dropping to the stone floor. For
one second she thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad, living here, but that thought was
banished faster then it had surfaced.

Behlen grinned, but that grin was short lived as one of Nahalanee's blades sank deep
into his chest.

"I could never be happy at the hands of demons, especially ones who can't even act
like proper dwarves!" she said and charged the other two.

It was over quickly, a twinge of guilt and sadness gripped her heart as she watched
Trian's head roll across the floor. In the end Trian had not been a loving brother, but that
had never stopped her from loving him, she had always looked up to him. And to kill
him a second time, even if it wasn't really Trian, hurt.

She retrieved her blade from Behlen's chest and spun to her right as she heard an odd
sound. She watched dumbfounded as a small black pedestal seemed to shimmer into
existence 20 feet away.

She returned her blades to their scabbards as she approached the pedestal, a white
glyph appeared on the ground around it. For a long time she just stared at it, trying
to make out the odd symbols carved on the top, and then did the only thing she could think of.

She reached out and rested her hand on the strange design, a feeling of being torn in
half wracked her body as the world seemed to fade into darkness, only to reappear again
a moment later. She fell to her knees panting, by the ancestors that hurt! She thought.

"Who are you?" A voice asked from her left. She quickly regained her feet as she reached
over her shoulder with her right hand, resting it on the hilt of her sword.

"I could ask you the same thing, are you another demon?" She asked the robed human before
her.

"I am Niall," He replied, looking at her with worn wary eyes. "A mage of the circle of
Fereldan. I was trying to save the circle when I ran into the sloth demon."