A/N: I officially suck at keeping an update schedule, but I shall endure and continue to write this story because it'll drive me crazy if I don't.
Disclaimer: Not mine, in any way, at all, ever, never will be.
I began to have nightmares after the day of the darkspawn attack. It was usually about the beasts attacking us again while we slept.
There was another dream though that always woke me, I would be covered in sweat and screaming. It was of the creatures devouring the very land that we walked upon. They sucked up everything good until nothing was left but death and ruin. That dream always felt real not like a dream but almost like a vision.
I hadn't wanted to ask what the creatures were, for fear of them discovering I wasn't from here. I deducted that the Grey Wardens were a special sort of warriors. They were trained specifically for the purpose of killing darkspawn.
Parker had asked me why I didn't tell him I was a Mage. I had had no idea I could even do such a thing as conduct flames with my fingers. I told him this and he had cocked his head to the side.
"That's odd, most mages show their gifts at a very young age." I had wanted to slap myself.
I tried not to let my anxiety show and had said I no longer wished to speak of it. He had honored this and in turn hadn't spoken to me in days. I tried to be glad at his silence. I had wanted this, I didn't want to out myself; but sometimes at night, when I would wake up in a cold sweat, my heart in my throat, I would think of his arms around me that day. So much death surrounded us, but I had felt safe for the first time in weeks.
I looked at him then as I pondered things. He road ahead of the rest of us. His back straight and his eyes always scanning the trees for potential threats. Could I tell this man my secret? Would he keep it?
No you fool. Remember who he is.
My inner voice hissed at me and I remembered the griffin upon his armor. I was alone in this, until we reached mother and father. I was alone.
The city of Denerim was not as I had thought it would be. I thought it would be even more lively than the small village I had stumbled into at Highever. The streets were quiet. Market stalls were empty and abandoned. The people that did walk the streets wore solemn expressions and walked with their heads downs. I looked to Parker who also had a confused look on his face.
"You there!" He called out to a young boy that carried several loaves of bread in his tiny arms. He stopped running at Parker's voice.
"Where is everyone? Why are the streets so deserted?" He asked.
"You aven't heard, ser?"
"Heard what?"
"The crown prince is dead, and his lady princess. They both got a fever and died within a week. The 'ole city is in a despair, they says there's no heir to the throne now. They reckon we're all doomed."
I nearly fell off my horse at the boy's words. Mother and father were dead, and just when I had found out they had lived all this time. Pain ripped into my heart. I was alone, how was I supposed to carry this burden on my own? They were supposed to tell me what to do. They were supposed to help me.
A sob threatened to rip out of my chest.
"Which way to the castle?" I said frantically. The boy looked to me and pointed with a dumbfounded expression.
I took off in the direction he pointed. I had to get to them, I had to see them.
"Bretta wait!" Parker called after me but I didn't care to listen.
I felt the tears falling down my face as I ran. Ugly, painful sobs ripped from my chest. I finally came to a castle gate.
"I am family to Daniel and Elizabeth Theirin!" I hopped off my horse and rushed to the guards.
"I must, I must see them." I said as I huffed.
They both looked at me as if they were seeing a ghost.
"Open the gate!" They shouted and the gate slowly began to open.
I rushed inside and was met by another guard who said he would take me to them. I followed behind him and didn't even try to hold in the sobs that shook my entire body. We came to what seemed to be a small chapel and inside both mother and father were laid upon a stone platform. Their hands were intertwined. I walked to them slowly. They both looked older than I remembered. They could have been sleeping, with how peaceful they looked. I broke then, I screamed in my grief and threw myself onto father's chest as I sobbed.
"You were supposed to help me!" I shouted into his chest. I sobbed into his fine clothing. My tears soaking the silk.
"Who are you, child?" A voice came from the shadows. I jumped at the sound and turned to see an older woman emerging. She wore a fine crown upon her hear, she was beautiful.
I knew I needed to lie, I had no idea who this woman was. She could have very well thrown me into a dungeon for all I knew; but in my grief I could not lie. I could not lie in front of my mother and father. To hell with what happened to me, I was tired.
"I am Bretta Elissa Theirin. Daughter of Daniel Theirin." I held my chin high as I spoke, even as the tears continued to fall.
The woman's face slackened in shock and then she came forward. She reached a hand out to me but then pulled it back as if she thought I was a figment of her imagination. I watched her carefully, unsure of what she was thinking. She finally touched my cheek with her hand and her face softened, she sobbed but she was smiling as she pulled me to her tightly and hugged me.
I was so shocked by her actions that I nearly missed the words she started saying over and over.
"My dear sweet granddaughter."
I awoke the next morning with a splitting headache. I vaguely remembered the woman… My grandmother, the queen, leading me to a room. My body and mind were exhausted from the turmoil over the last month and I had passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The curtains were pulled in the room I was in, and for that I was grateful. I looked around the room and noted that it was even more lavishly decorated than my room at Teyrn Cousland's had been. I sat up and my body popped from the movement. How long had I been asleep?
"You're awake." A voice came from my right.
I looked over to find Kieran sitting in a chair beside a fire. He was watching me, he looked like he hadn't slept. His eyes were red and full of grief, and his face that was usually smooth was unshaven with several days stubble. Even with his rumpled state, he was the best thing in the world to me in that instant. He was the first familiar face I had seen in a month. I flew from my spot on the bed and into his arms. My head screamed but I didn't care, I openly sobbed into his arms.
"There there now little duck." He said in a soothing voice as he patted my back.
"Mother and father…" I croaked.
"I know. Bretta I am so sorry, I am so sorry you've been kept in the dark."
I sniffled and pulled away but held firm onto his hand. I felt like I needed him to anchor me to the ground.
"Kieran, I have been so afraid, what in the world is going on?" Weeks of being afraid and not knowing how or why things were happening to me crept into my voice.
Kieran didn't answer me right away, he reached forward where the crystal hung around my neck. He lifted the stone into his hands and twisted it between his fingers.
"Who knows you have this?" He asked, he met my eyes and his were serious and frightened.
"No one, except for you, and a woman called Flemeth." I murmured.
Kieran hissed and stood abruptly.
"It figures that infernal woman would insert herself into this." He muttered as he began to pace in front of the fire.
"I don't understand." I said, "What is this crystal, Kieran? Why is it so important?"
"It's not the crystal itself that's important, but rather the person that wears it."
"Meaning me." I stayed dumbly.
Kieran stopped pacing and raked his hand through his hair.
"Do you remember the day you found it? You said you had this need like you had to have it?" He looked at me expectantly and I nodded.
"That wasn't a figment of your imagination. That necklace is tainted, Bretta, with dark magic, blood magic. No one knows who created it, and it's only appeared a few times throughout history. Twice to be exact, not including you." He stopped and took a deep breath before pacing again.
"The crystal shows up when a prophecy is made. The last documented sighting of it was when the prophet Andraste was alive. It chose her."
"Andraste?" I asked. I had heard the Grey Wardens speak the name but had been too afraid to ask questions.
"I am forgetting you know nothing of this world. Andraste is a religious figure, she is worshiped and revered. The bride of the maker." He motioned with his hands as if to say etcetera.
"The point is that the crystal is a bad omen. A year before you were born a prophecy was made, it said that within a year a child would be born, and that this child would stop all future Blights. An end to the blight completely, an end to darkspawn."
"What is a Blight?"
"Legend says that a group of blood mages tried to enter the Golden City, the seat of the maker. To punish them for their treachery the Maker cursed them, thus the first darkspawn were born. There have been five blights since then. The sixth is beginning now, not even half a century since the last. People are growing frightened at what this means."
I soaked in all that he was saying, "And it's up to me to stop this?"
"You were a week old when the necklace chose you. Your mother went to get you out of your crib one morning and found it around your neck. Your parents were terrified, so they fled, I helped them. It took a lot of magic, blood magic, to do it, but it needed to be done. To protect you. Your father traveled back and forth over the years. They thought you would be safe if you were in a different realm; but then our father died and our oldest brother not long after. Daniel had to return, but you couldn't come. They couldn't risk it."
"Father? Brother? You and my father were brothers?" He nodded and I sat back in the chair. My head was spinning at all the information I had received.
Kieran sat down in another chair beside mine.
"Are you okay?"
I didn't answer, "What does the prophecy mean exactly? Why were they so afraid of it?"
Kieran turned his head away from mine.
"Kieran, tell me."
He was reluctant, I could tell, but I stared at him. I needed him to say it.
"It says that the child that the necklace chooses will stop all future Blights, but die in the process."
The air left me in a whoosh. I had suspected, but to hear him say it was another thing. I felt sick. I touched the necklace that rested on my chest and I thought that perhaps I should cry, or yell, shout to the heavens that life wasn't fair. I just sat there quietly though, I didn't think I had any tears left. I was all dried out.
"There is one other thing…" Kieran watched me with concerned eyes.
"With your father being dead, that leaves you as the sole heir to the throne of Ferelden." I looked to him sharply.
"What about you?" I demanded.
"I'm not exactly a claimed son of my father. Elissa, the queen, is not my mother; even though she has always treated me as a son."
"I don't know anything about this world, Kieran, I can't possible… Rule." I gulped at the thought.
"That is not the first priority here, the first priority is this necklace and your safety." He stood again and leaned against the mantel.
He was trying to conjure a plan. I felt content to let him worry, I had worried myself sick the last month. I needed this moment to take everything in. A month ago I was fairly normal, odd to some I suppose, but I had a normal life. Now I had discovered that not only am I the sole heir to a kingdom in a completely different dimension, I also have the threat of my impending death weighing on my shoulders. I longed for mother and father, I had dared to let my heart hope to see them again.
"What is this fever that took mother and father?" I asked suddenly. Kieran looked to me, pulled from his thoughts.
"We don't know, no magic could heal them." His face was full of skepticism and I was afraid to ask what he was thinking.
A thought occurred to me at his words, I looked down at my hands. I hadn't dared try to make anything happen since the day in the forest.
"Kieran, I'm a Mage." I said without looking away from my hands.
He turned to me sharply, in a second he was knelt before me holding my wrist.
"How do you know?"
"The party of Grey Wardens I traveled with was attacked, a darkspawn was about to kill me but I… Set it on fire."
"Andraste's tits, Bretta." Kieran said with a sigh.
"Are mages bad?" I asked.
"No, we actually live much more free than we used to. Ever since Devine Victoria was placed on the Sunburst Throne the mages have been able to all but govern themselves." I nodded as I listened.
"You said we…" I murmured, he nodded.
"I too have the gift of magic, I will show you how to wield it." Another fact to catalogue into my mind.
"Listen, Bretta, like it or not we have to let the people of Ferelden know you're alive and well. The country is mourning and afraid. It is crucial though that you not tell anyone of the crystal or of where you were raised. I suggest you start reading as many books as possible, you're officially a Fereldan now, better start acting like it."
A/N: Woooo, lots happening. Lots of info to take in. Where is Parker you ask? You'll see him next chapter...