Disclaimer: All rights to Dragon Age belong to Bioware.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, hardly recognizing myself. The deep blue of the gown I wore complimented my ivory skin. The elf woman Cecilia had combed my hair back and twisted it into an elaborate bun. I looked like my mother. My hair was the same dark mahogany as hers and my eyes were the same sapphire blue. I had never felt so glamorous in my entire life. I slipped the silk slippers onto my feet and followed Cecilia out of the room and through a bunch of corridors. We came to a large wooden door and she opened it for me and stood to the side. She winked at me as I walked past her, I was very grateful for her kindness.
"Lady Bretta! You look absolutely lovely, you bear a striking resemblance to the Lady Elizabeth Theirin." Lady Cousland greeted me as I entered the room. She sat to the left of a dark haired man. He watched me with narrowed eyes and I thought for sure he would see through me.
"You do indeed, you could almost be her daughter." He said slowly. I chuckled nervously and bowed my head, thinking that must be what was expected of me.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Teyrn Cousland." I said to the man.
His face changed, he smiled kindly at me and stood to bring my hand to his lips.
"The pleasure is ours, my lady. My wife tells me you were attacked on the road to Denerim?" He asked as he sat back down and motioned to a servant who brought us all a glass of red liquid.
An elf man helped me into my chair, I thanked him and he bowed his head slightly before leaving.
I cleared my throat before answering the Teyrn's question. "Yes… My lord, my entire party was killed and they took everything I carried with me." I hated lying, I despised it, but I was still surprised at how easily the lies were flowing from me. It must come naturally, I thought with a bitter tone of mother and father.
"We will help you all that we can. I will have a servant fetch you some clothes. Anything for family, I am quite surprised I've never met you before."
I took a sip of the red liquid, it was wine, and it tasted amazing. "I have never been to Ferelden before now." That part was at least true.
"How are you finding it so far?" Lady Cousland asked.
"It's… Very different from my home. Very beautiful though, my lady." I said, again truthfully.
"Please, call me Anna, I think we shall be good friends." She smiled kindly and I returned it.
"Anna… Only if you will agree to call me Bretta. I thank you both for your kindness, I really need to get to Denerim as soon as possible. My m-, my cousin is expecting me." I caught myself quickly.
The Teyrn smiled and opened his mouth to speak; just then the doors to the dining hall opened and a man walked in. My first thought upon seeing this man was that I didn't think I had ever seen someone so handsome in all my life. He had black hair that hung slightly shaggy, his jawline was defined with a dusting of stubble across it. His eyes were the most striking, they were a shade of green that I had never seen before. Like summer grass after a rain shower. He was beautiful and I felt my breath catch at the sight of him.
"Parker!" Lady Cousland said happily when he entered. She got up to run around the table and hug him tightly.
"Sister, you look well." He said with a grin, his voice was like velvet.
"Why didn't you write me to say you were coming! I would have pulled a party together!"
"That's exactly why I didn't write you. I told Stanley, I wanted to surprise you. I'm only able to stay for a night. There is a meeting at the capitol that I must attend."
"Stanley! You bad man! I can't believe you wouldn't tell me my baby brother was coming!" She scolded the Teyrn, he simply smiled at his wife.
"I apologize, my love, but you are forgetting our guest." He reminded her.
She turned to me and smiled apologetically. "Oh forgive me, Bretta, it has been nearly a year since I have seen my brother you see." I waved my hand and smiled to let her know I wasn't offended.
The man, Parker, turned to look at me as his sister did. He settled me with those piercing green eyes and I thought I would stay there forever, trapped in his gaze. What was wrong with me?
"Forgive me as well, my lady. I am Parker Evanson, the Lady Cousland is my older sister." He came forth and kissed my hand just as the Teyrn had.
"Please, call me Bretta." I said meekly.
"Bretta." He smiled as he said my name.
"Parker is a Grey Warden, oh! Bretta is headed to Denerim as well, brother! You could escort her!" Anna was talking animatedly but my stomach had clenched.
There is a group of people who hunt the wearer of that necklace. They are called the Grey Wardens, they are good people, but not to you.
This man was a Grey Warden. I stared at his blue and grey armor he wore. It had a griffin on the breastplate. His hand rested easily on his sword hilt. This man wanted me, because of this necklace. The crystal suddenly felt very heavy against my collarbone. I felt like I was sweating and I prayed they couldn't tell.
"I would be proud to escort the lady. That is if she doesn't mind camping with a bunch of smelly Wardens for a couple of weeks." He smiled in a friendly way and I gulped. There were more of them.
They all waited for me to respond, if I refused they would find me odd and ungrateful. The Grey Wardens were obviously revered soldiers. The way Anna and the Teyrn smiled at Parker proudly was proof of that. I forced a tight smiled and cleared my throat nervously and said the only thing I could say.
"The honor would be mine to travel with Grey Wardens." I was dead for sure.
"We will stop here, my lady." A female Warden notified me.
I pulled my horse to a stop and hopped off. I was thankful that father had made me take basic horse riding lessons as a child; but that had been years ago. My butt was nearly completely numb and the slippers Anna had given me were very beautiful, but not exactly something you wanted to travel across country on horseback in.
It had been three days since we left Highever. I had made sure I didn't speak to anyone directly unless spoken to. I made camp a safe distance from everyone else. I didn't want to encourage them to speak to me. Mostly because I had no idea what to say to these people, and also because I was terrified of them discovering me. I wished I had asked Flemeth more about the wretched necklace and why it was so important. I had so many questions, and while I was so happy to find my mother and father alive, another part of me was fiercely angry that they had abandoned me.
I thought of Gran and Kieran; they both had to have known about all of this. Had Kieran come for me yet? I kept hoping he would show up in front of me and answer all of the questions that were driving me batty.
"You haven't eaten all day, have some bread." I looked up from my place on my bedroll to find Parker looking at me with a piece of bread offered.
"I'm not hungry." I said quickly. I had too much on my mind to eat.
He rolled his eyes and sat down beside me. I instinctively moved away from him and tucked my legs underneath me.
"It's a long road to Denerim, Bretta. You have to keep your strength. Eat." He demanded.
I took the bread from him and nibbled a bit, hoping he would be appeased. Parker nodded to himself, pleased.
"My sister says you've never been to Ferelden before." He said as he took a bite of his own bread.
I swallowed and nodded. "I indeed have not."
"I only visited Ostwick once as a small child. I found it was lovely." He said conversationally.
I was briefly confused but then I remembered Ostwick was mother's country of origin.
"Oh! Yes, it's very beautiful." I said, and I hoped he read the tone of my voice that said I didn't wish to continue this conversation.
I felt him watching me, his green eyes were so probing. He terrified me. He was intelligent, that much I had learned. He lead his men with a confidence that wasn't seen often. He was stern, but likable.
He was dangerous.
"You're a hard one to figure out, Bretta" he took another bite of bread and chewed it as he stared at me.
I swallowed my bite of bread and chuckled nervously. "There's nothing to figure out. I'm a simple girl of noble birth going to visit family in Denerim." Lies. Lies. Lies.
His eyes narrowed, "Is that so?"
I lifted my chin and nodded confidently.
He pursed his lips and looked away. Then he chuckled.
"You know, I've never seen a lady of noble birth ride a horse the way you do. Straddling it like a man." He mused. I opened my mouth but he kept going.
"Also, I've noticed you only really answer to your first name. The other day Warden Danvers had to all but shout at you to get your attention. You also are always patting your chest as if to check and see that something is still there." He finished his little rant without once looking my way.
I sat there with my mouth open and fear gripping at my heart. I was dead.
"You, Bretta Donnicks, have secrets." He said and then stood.
He began to walk away but turned to look at me. Maybe he saw the fear in my eyes and took pity on me. He walked over, bent at the waist so his face was right in front of my own.
"That's okay though, I like secrets." Then he took the final bite of his bread and left me sitting there in stunned silence.
Parker didn't try to converse with me the morning after our chat and I found myself being even more guarded than I had been before. He sensed something, I had to be more careful. I still had no idea what I was dealing with exactly. Why did I have such a bond to the necklace? Why had mother and father taken our family away from this place?
There was so much I needed answers for.
My mind was so clouded with thoughts that my horse nearly bumped into the Warden in front of me. I looked up to see that everyone has stopped and they were all reaching for their weapons.
"What is happening?" I asked, afraid.
"Quiet!" Parker hissed and he rode his horse up beside mine.
It all happened quickly then. These… Things burst from the trees. They looked like rotted corpses, and they carried weapons.
"Darkspawn!" A female Warden shouted.
"Bretta! Run!" Parker looked at me with panicked eyes and he suddenly slapped my horse's hind quarters causing the mare to rear up and take off like a bat out of hell.
I held on tightly as the horse ran us into the forest and away from the conflict. I could hear the fighting behind me and I felt terror grip me. What were those creatures? They smelled of death. I pulled back on the reigns trying to get my horse to slow down. She finally went to a trot and then stopped all together. My heart was racing, I had no idea where I was. I couldn't go on without them, and I couldn't leave them. What could I do? Father had taught me how to shoot a bow when I was young but those lessons had stopped when he died… Or when he left rather.
I knew I had to do something. I gripped what courage I could muster and I kicked my horse and got her to head back in the direction that we had come from. I entered the battlefield and nearly fainted. Wardens and the creatures lay dead everywhere, and they were still fighting. I realized in that moment just how real this situation was. There is a stark difference in seeing violence in movies and then witnessing it yourself. These are people I had seen every day for the past weeks. We had shared meals together. I had listened to them laugh. They had families and people who loved them and they were dead.
"Bretta! Look out!"
It was Parker again and just as I turned to his voice an arrow struck my horse in the neck causing the animal to rear again, I fell to the ground hard. I pushed myself up just in time to dodge the swing of a sword. I screamed and tried to pull myself to my feet. Parker was running towards me but he kept getting stopped by more enemies. I was going to die.
The creature wheeled on me again. Things happened slowly. I shouted as I thrust my hands before me. I had no idea what would happen but it felt right. This energy left me then. It exploded from within me and it came from the palms of my hands in the form of flames. The creature turned to ash before my eyes. I looked at my hands when the creature was dead and I turned to see the remaining darkspawn were fleeing.
I began to sob hard. What was happening? How was any of this possible? Magic wasn't real. How had I produced fire from my hands just out of pure willpower? I vomited onto the ground before me and continued to sob loudly.
I felt strong arms surround me and I burrowed my face into his armor. I could hear the slight tinking noise as my tears hit his breastplate. Parker stroked my hair lightly as he held me and I sobbed.
I cried for my parents. I cried for the life I thought I knew. I cried for Kieran. I cried for the dead men and women that were scattered around me.
"It's okay, Bretta, I've got you." Parker said, "It's over, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
A/N: Woo, this was a hard chapter to write. I just kept getting stuck. Sorry for the delay!