Disclaimer: I do NOT own Dragon Age or anything related to it.
"She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott."
― Alfred Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott
Chapter 1:Mirror, Mirror
"Mythal'enaste, where is that seldo?" Jade asked herself aloud in vexation as she spent the last half-hour searching tirelessly for a certain blonde elven hunter.
The last few weeks since Ineria teased her by the campfire about her feelings for Tamlen were difficult for Jade. She spent most of her time hunting with him just to see him more more often and each time whenever she tried confessing to him her affections, fear of rejection always gave her pause and kept her from telling him the truth. They still shared stolen glances and smiles over the campfire, but nothing came of it.
Today, she was supposed to be assisting Master Ilen, but the clan's craftsman had just smiled at her and told her she could go hunting with Tamlen. That made her turn about five or six different shades of red as she stuttered out the question of what he was talking about. Master Ilen just shook his head and laughed, walking away and leaving an astonished Jade standing alone to stare with wide eyes. Did everyone in the clan know about her attraction to Tamlen but said elf? If so, then she must've done a very poor job of being discreet about it.
'Just wait until Ashalle finds out.' Jade groaned mentally.'Then I will most definitely never hear the end of it.'
Tamlen had gone on his hunt earlier that day and she'd went out to look for him, so far without any results. It was as if the blonde elf had simply vanished into thin air. A sigh escaped her lips as she considered giving up looking for him and going back to camp when a shriek suddenly echoed throughout the forest. The huntress jumped in surprise, hurrying toward the source of the sound at full speed and wondering if Tamlen was anywhere near it. She stopped eventually to catch her breath and looked around, spotting some figures through the forest brush. Getting down on the ground, she crawled toward a bush and peeked out carefully from behind the bush, spotting Tamlen pointing his bow and notching an arrow at three terrified-looking shemlen, one of them practically shaking in his toes while the other two seemed to have fallen and were trying to crawl away as he advanced on them. The middle shem on the ground gave a cry of surprise and pointed at Tamlen.
"Look, it's a Dalish!" Tamlen grinned evilly, pulling lightly on the string to make the humans yelp with fright as he took a threatening step toward them.
"And you three are somewhere you shouldn't be." Even from behind the bush, Jade could see the malice glint in his light blue eyes. It scared her a little and she almost felt sorry for the humans. Almost. She raised an eyebrow when the shem on his feet forced himself to stop shaking and glared bravely at Tamlen, puffing out his chest in a poor attempt to look brave.
"Let us pass now, elf! You have no right to stop us!" Tamlen laughed a rather dangerous laugh that caused theshem to jump slightly with a frightened squeal. The evil grin on Tamlen's face only widened when he spotted Jade slowly coming out of her hiding place and going over to stand beside him, her own bow pointed at the three humans.
"No?" He questioned, eyebrow raised."I guess we'll just have to see about that now, won't we?"
"Aneth ara, lethallin." Jade said quietly with a nod of acknowledgement."I heard a scream and figured you'd found something...or someone as it would seem."
Tamlen nodded curtly."You're just in time, Jade. I found these skittish little humans lurking in the bushes and I'm sure they're bandits."
"We aren't bandits!" The middle one on the ground cried fearfully."Please don't hurt us!"
Tamlen let out a humorless laugh, shaking his head in disgust."You shemlen are simply pathetic. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that it was your kind who drove our people from their homelands."
"We haven't ever done anything to you Dalish!" The third human protested."We didn't even know this forest was yours!"
Jade glared."You fool, this forest does not belong to us." She shook her head."No, I'm afraid you've just stumbled a little too close to our camp."
Tamlen sneered at them."You shems are all like vermin. We can't possibly trust you not to make mischief. It's all your kind has ever done." He turned to Jade."What do you say to this, lethallan? What do you think we should do with them?"
Jade studied them thoughtfully before heaving a sigh."Let them go. You judge humans too harshly."
Tamlen scowled."You are far too soft on them, lethallan. How much suffering must our people endure in order for you to despise these humans properly?"
She started to reply, but was cut off by the middle human who'd picked himself up and started stuttering an explanation about how they wanted no trouble and had found a cave with ruins like none of them had ever seen before. Jade couldn't help herself; she laughed loudly and shook her head in disbelief.
"I'd certainly like to see these so-called ruins of yours, shem." Tamlen gave a nod of agreement at her words.
"Me too. I've never heard of any ruins located in these parts." The first human jumped in his shoes, reaching for something in his pocket and taking out a strange-looking stone.
"I have proof, look!" Tamlen immediately snatched the stone away and examined it with wide eyes.
"This stone has carvings like I've never seen before." Jade kept her bow trained at the humans as she moved a little closer to Tamlen so she could see the stone and heard him gasp in surprise."Is this Elvish? Actual written Elvish?"
Jade raised an eyebrow, mentally reminding herself to ask him how he knew it was written Elvish carved into the stone. Only keepers and their firsts should know how the elven language was written and no one else, but Tamlen for some reason seemed to know as well. She couldn't say she was surprised; he was a troublemaker and a very sneaky one at that. Her attention was brought back to the humans when one of them spoke up rather quickly.
"There's more in the ruins, but we didn't get very far in." That was certainly suspicious.
"Oh?" Jade questioned."And why not?"
"There was a demon!" He exclaimed, shaking with fear."It was huge with big black eyes. Oh, thank the Maker we managed to outrun it!"
Tamlen let out another humorless laugh."A demon?" He raised an eyebrow and shook his head with a sigh."Where is this cave of yours, shem?"
"Just off the west, I think." The human pointed toward that direction."There's a cave in the rock face along with a huge hole just up ahead."
Tamlen looked at Jade."Well, do you trust them? Should we let them go?"
Jade frowned, lowering her eyes as she glanced at the terrified humans, their eyes pleading for clemency. She heaved a sigh and turned back to Tamlen.
"Kill one. The other two will make sure no else comes." That was all the encouragement the second and third humans on the ground needed. Without so much as a second thought to their companion, they scrambled up and ran off, leaving him to his fate. The remaining human backed away fearfully, pleading desperately for his life and letting out a yelp as Tamlen's arrow pierced his heart. He slowly fell to the floor, whimpering like an injured puppy before death finally took him and he stopped moving.
Tamlen lowered his bow and casually went to retrieve his arrow, twirling the weapon around a bit before placing it back in his quiver. Jade's eyes briefly flickered toward the dead human and then at her clan mate, who obviously couldn't care less about the stiff before him, simply giving the human's corpse a small glance and then turning back to Jade with a slight shrug.
"Well, shall we see if there's any truth to what they were saying?" He asked."These carvings make me curious."
Jade frowned."Shouldn't we inform the keeper?"
Tamlen shrugged."She might be interested in these carving, but I'd rather see if there's actually anything worth getting excited about first. Now, they said it was just off the west..."
"Tamlen." Jade said, wanting to tell him the truth. He turned to her, eyebrow raised.
"Yes?" She sighed, shaking her head.
"Forget it, nothing important." Tamlen narrowed his eyes at her, but nodded.
"If you say so, now come on so we can find those ruins they were talking about."
"Right." She sighed, slumping her shoulders as she followed after him.
It was taking all of Jade's mental strength to not just explode emotionally and throw her arms around Tamlen like an immature da'ashalen and blurt out how she felt about him. The way he always smiled at her nearly made the raven-haired huntress melt into a mud muddle. Not to mention how handsome he was, with his light blue eyes, slightly tanned skin, dark blonde hair, and what he must've looked like under his armor...
She could feel her cheeks flush at that last thought, swiftly shaking her head to rid her mind of such inappropriate thoughts. A part of her was starting to think that he didn't return her feelings for him. All throughout their childhood, the two of them were very close and there were many occasions when the vea'en would bring up the idea of them marrying in the future. Any mention of marriage always caused the two children to scream in disgust and make gagging noises. The adults would just roll their eyes, stating that they would understand everything better once they were older.
Now they were older and she most definitely understood everything better, but she feared that Tamlen might not feel the same way. Surely, he would have already confessed any feelings of the romantic sort to her if he returned them instead of simply keeping quiet about it like she was. Tamlen wasn't exactly the kind of person who kept whatever he felt inside. In fact, he'd always chided her growing up for keeping things that bothered her to herself. It only made sense to think that he held no affections for her, she supposed.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Tamlen's shout of her name that echoed off the cavern's walls as he grabbed her arm and barely pulled her aside in time to avoid getting pounced on by a giant spider. She blinked several times, eyes widening in realization at the sight of four giant spiders just popping out of nowhere and trying to make a meal out of the two elves. Tamlen drew his bow and shot an arrow at the spider he'd just saved his clan mate from, flinching when the creature screeched loudly in a mix of both pain and rage and glared furiously at Tamlen. Jade gave a yelp as Tamlen pulled her aside again and spun around to shoot an arrow at another spider. It was then that Jade finally snapped fully back into reality and drew her own bow.
The huntress backed away slightly so she and Tamlen were standing back-to-back as the four giant spiders cornered them. There was silence for a moment before one of the spiders screeched and Jade reacted by shooting an arrow into one of it's eyes. In response, the other three lunged at them, saliva dripping from their loudly snapping jaws in disappointed anger over missing their targets. Grabbing two arrows, Tamlen shot them both separately at two different spiders and quickly rolled aside to avoid their attack before shooting two more arrows and smirking as the spiders fell dead to the floor with screeches of pain.
Jade let out a yipe as she jumped to the floor when the spider with her arrow in it's eye lunged at her. It grabbed her ankle and started pulling her back, but swiftly retrieved her bow and shot an arrow into another one of it's eyes, followed by two more arrows that finally brought it down. Tamlen rushed over and helped her up, both of them each taking out one arrow and shooting at the last giant spider, watching as it gave a loud screech and it's lifeless form crumbled to the floor. They both almost fell over, struggling to catch their breath and Jade couldn't help but comment on what had just happened.
"Well, that was surreal." Tamlen gave a nod of agreement at her words, trying not to fall over from exhaustion. His eyes lowered for a second before widening as if he had just remembered something important and he gave her a questioning look.
"Wait a second, weren't you supposed be assisting Master Ilen today? How did you end up coming with me?" He raised his eyebrow suspiciously at her, crossing his arms when she looked away to hide her slightly flushed cheeks and lowered her gaze to the floor, shuffling her feet nervously before answering in an almost inaudible tone of voice.
"I wanted to be with you." Her answer was nothing more than a quiet whisper, but he could clearly hear every word she spoke and a very sluggish smile spread across his handsome face when he heard what she said. Uncrossing his arms, he reached out and tilted her chin up with his fingers before slowly leaning in and gently pressing his lips against hers.
The raven-haired huntress's eyes widened as she felt her face heat up at the sudden feeling of his lips on hers, but quickly reciprocated by wrapping her arms around his neck while he put his own arms around her waist to pull her closer. After a moment, he pulled away and smiled at her.
"I though that might be the case." He murmured against her lips."I'm glad."
That being said, he released her and she didn't even bother to hide her smile as she touched her lips where he had kissed her and followed him further into the cave.
"I can't believe this!" Tamlen gasped."You recognize this statue, don't you?"
Jade cocked her head to the side and crossed her arms as she studied the statue thoughtfully before shrugging slightly."I admit it's kinda worn, but seems vaguely familiar to me."
"Back when our people were still living in Arlathan, statues like this one honored the Creators. But when theshems enslaved us, a majority of that lore was lost." Tamlen explained."This statue looks like human architecture. I wonder if these ruins can possibly date back to the time of Arlathan..."
"Maybe." Jade shrugged."But there really isn't much left down here as you can see."
"Yes." He said with a sigh."Time and decay slowly take their toll, but there's still bound to be something of value here."
"I hope you're right." She muttered under her breath.
A strange sound suddenly rang throughout the cave that made them both jump in surprise and look all around for the source of the sound. Jade's eyes instantly went wide when two living skeletons came from behind a corner, swords drawn as they charged at the two elves. She let out a squeal while narrowly avoiding one skeleton's sword connecting with her neck and used her leg to swipe it off it's feet. The skeleton started to get up, but she pinned it down with her foot and shot it in between the eye sockets with an arrow. Tamlen quickly shot down the other one and looked back at his female companion with wide eyes.
"Those were walking corpses!" He exclaimed."Is this place haunted or something?!"
Moaning, Jade ran a hand over her face but said nothing in response.
"I don't even want to know what that creature was." Jade panted heavily as the monster they'd just fought finally fell dead to the floor. Tamlen ignored her, his blue eyes going wide as he stared at the strange mirror before him. She hesitantly went to stand beside him and when he spoke, his voice sounded like he was in some sort of trance.
"Isn't it beautiful, lethallan?" He asked in awe."Any idea what that writing means?"
Jade shrugged."Don't touch the glass?" She said, half-jokingly.
Tamlen scoffed."Like we'd be able to leave a fingerprint or anything on it. There's not a single smudge or crack on the glass." His eyes suddenly widened."Hey, did you see that?"
"See what?" She quirked an eyebrow.
"I think something moved inside the mirror." He moved closer to it and she grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Get away from it, Tamlen." She said, but he pulled away from her grip.
"There it is again." He gasped."Didn't you see it? I need to get a closer look."
Jade watched as Tamlen slowly reached out and touched the mirror."It's showing me some kind of underground city...and...there's... a great blackness of some sort..." His eyes shut for a moment before suddenly opening as he screamed."It saw me! Help! I can't look away!"
"Tamlen!" Jade screamed as a blinding white light suddenly erupted from the mirror and an unknown force threw her back. She opened her lips to scream, but as soon as her head hit the floor, everything went black.
"Can you hear me?" A voice asked.
Jade's vision was blurry as she opened her eyes to see a dark-skinned shem leaning over her. The shem shook his head."I am very sorry."
That was the last she heard before she drifted back into the peaceful bliss of unconsciousness.
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Elven Translations:
Mythal'enaste - An exclamation of pain, surprise, anger, frustration, etc
Seldo - Boy
Da'ashalen - (Literally: Little woman child) Little girl
Vea'en - Adults
Shemlen/Shems - (Literally: Quick children) Humans
Lethallan - Friend/Kinswoman (Female)
Lethallin - Friend/Kinsman (Male)
Aneth ara (Literally: My safe place) A sociable or friendly greeting, more commonly used among the Dalish themselves rather than with outsiders.
Arlathan - (Literally: I love the place/Place that I love) The major city of elves, original homeland of the elves
Next up: Chapter 2:Sick