Disclaimer: I do NOT own Dragon Age or anything related to it.

"When one consorts with assassins, one must expect to dance along the edge of a knife once or twice."
— R.L. LaFevers (Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1))

Chapter 16:Assassins

She was back in this wonderful, perfect, peaceful place known as the Beyond. That much was clear to Jade as she walked through the beautiful forest with the sound of the birds singing a lovely tune and the sun shining through the trees filling her senses. The huntress was looking for something, or someone rather, but could not seem to find that someone, and so she just kept on wandering aimlessly until they would find her instead. It was very confusing, but for some reason, Jade felt as if she knew in her vhenan where she was going despite the fact that that her brain was unsure of where to go, settling on going wherever it was her legs would take her.

"You seem to like it here, da'len." Jade stopped dead in her tracks at the familiar deep male voice, twisting around on her heel to see none other than the late Keeper Magnus Mahariel standing behind her with a sombre expression on his face. His dark blue eyes were narrowed and he raised them for but a moment before looking down again. Biting her lower lip, Jade slowly looked up at the man and took tentative step forward.

"Papae?" Magnus nodded curtly in response to her almost inaudible question, a sad smile crossing his lips. With the wave of his hand, he beckoned his daughter closer, causing her to hesitate again before letting out a deep breath and walking over to him, eyes never once leaving his as they stared at each other for several long moments.

"No doubt you have questions, da'len." The late keeper said with a sigh."Unfortunately, I have very little time to answer them as there is so much I must tell you first before I can hear what you have to say." Turning away, he gestured for her to follow him as they walked down the path together that lead out of the forest and toward where a large waterfall was located. Jade did not say a word the entire time, only did as her father said to and hesitantly sat down on the ground with her legs crossed across from him once they reached the cataract

For the longest time, father and daughter simply stared at each other in uncomfortable silence. Eventually, Magnus gave a deep sigh and looked up at his daughter with the ghost of a sad smile on his face."Let me be blunt with you, da'len, seeing as we do not have much time left. You have a Banalhan to stop, but that is not all you must do. As I said the last time we met like this, there are dark forces you must face other than those behind the Banalhan, forces that I desperately wish you did not have to defeat, but if this is what the Creators expect of you, then all I can do is help you prepare and offer you guidance. This will be a very long journey for you, da'len, and as time goes by, some things will get easier and some shall get even harder. Much more of the latter shall occur than the former, however, I'm afraid."

"I do not understand." Jade shook her head in confusion."What is it the Creators expect of me? What are these other dark forces that I must defeat besides those behind the Banalhan? Please dirth ar, papae. How can I possibly do what the Creators expect me to do when I do not even know what it is that they expect of me? I am confused and afraid, papae. Please do not keep me in the dark."

Magnus lowered his eyes."I truly do wish I could provide answers for your many questions, but alas, our time has run out and it is time for you to go back now, da'len."

Jade immediately jumped up to her feet."Papae-" She started to protest but was cut off by him putting up a hand to interrupt whatever she wished to say and smiling sadly before taking a few steps back away from the perplexed huntress.

"Dareth shiral, emm'asha." He whispered, closing his eyes as vhen'alas suddenly began shaking violently, causing Jade to hit the ground like a rock when she made an unsuccessful attempt to stand up. When the shaking soon came to an abrupt stop, vhen'alas started cracking very quickly and dangerously.

Before Jade could so much as blink, the ground beneath her feet also gave way and with a loud cry of surprise, she fell from the Beyond.

Jade's eyes snapped open as she slowly removed the thin blanket from herself and sat up in the divine sette with a small yawn. She looked around the room, sighing when she saw that her friends were all still asleep and it was still dark out; in other words, she still had to wait a few more hours until sunrise so they could leave Lothering and move on.

The huntress closed her eyes and rubbed her temples wearily as she recalled the dream she'd just had. Flemeth had advised her to listen to everything Magnus Mahariel told her if he ever appeared in her dreams again and she did, but it was all still so confusing for the elf. What did papae mean when he spoke of other forces besides those behind the Banalhan that she would have to defeat? And what was is it that the Creators expected of her that he hoped she would be able to do?

Everything was just so confusing and difficult for her right now. First, she and Tamlen had to leave their clan to become Grey Wardens, then Tamlen completely withdrew from her, next they ended up betrayed and branded as traitors by an arrogant shemlen man who left them all to die, and now she was having these strange dreams of her long dead papae who had been killed by shemlen and flat-ears before she was even born. Why in Mythal's name was all of this happening to her of all people and not someone else?

With a sigh, she stood up and quietly exited the room, careful not to wake up any of her still slumbering friends as she did so. She closed the door behind her, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw Alistair standing outside and leaning against the balcony of the inn. It was clear to Jade by the look on his face that he was thinking about Duncan and she couldn't help but feel some pity for the human man. While it was wrong of him to drop all the responsibility of leadership on her and Valerire when he was the senior warden of them all, she couldn't blame him for mourning Duncan and everyone else who'd lost their lives at Ostagar because of Loghain's treachery.

"I see you can't sleep either." Alistair remarked with a wry smile as the elf moved to stand next to him and leaned against the railing whilst resting her chin on her fist.

"I had a dream." She stated softly.

"About darkspawn?" He asked.

"No." She shook her head and looked at him in confusion."Why would I dream about darkspawn?"

Alistair sighed."You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the darkspawn. The archdemon...talks to the horde, and we hear it just like they do. That's how we know this is really a blight. It takes time, but eventually we manage to block the dreams out. Some of the older wardens think they can actually understand what the archdemon is saying but I sure can't. I just thought I should let you know now so you won't be too surprised and confused once it actually does happen."

"I see." She said quietly as silence fell between them until she noticed the sad look on his face again and placed a hand on his shoulder."Do you want to talk about Duncan?"

Alistair shook his head."You don't have to do that. I know none of you knew him as long as I did."

Jade frowned."He was like a father to you, Alistair. I understand."

"I," He hesitated,", should have handled it better. Duncan warned me right from the begginning that this could happen, after all." He sighed, clearly ashamed of himself."Any of us could die in battle and I should not have lost it, at least not when so much is at stake with the Blight and Loghain branding us traitors and fugitives. I'm sorry."

Jade heaved a sigh."I'm still unhappy with you, but I can sympathize with your sorrow."

"I'd like to have a proper funeral for him once this is all over." He whispered."I don't think he had any family to speak of."

"He had you." She answered with a comforting smile.

Nodding in agreement, Alistair smiled."I suppose he did. Do the Dalish practice cremation?" She shook her head."What do your people do when one of your own dies, then?"

Jade smiled in response and looked up at the sky."We bury them and plant a tree over their remains."

"That sounds beautiful." He remarked with a wide smile."Life springing from death. I appreciate you trying to make me feel better and thanks for the talk."

Smiling back, Jade nodded at him."Anytime, Alistair."

"The Grey Wardens die here!" The male elven assassin shouted as he drew his weapons and about twenty to thirty other assassins came out of their hiding places to surround their targets. To the male elf's left was the very woman who'd led the group into an ambush by pretending to be a damsel in distress. An evil grin spread across her face as her hands glowed with purple lightning. To the male elf's right was another beautiful young woman, this one with creamy white skin, sapphire-colored eyes, and long white tresses that were each braided and hung against her back.

"It's an ambush!" Jade yelled, already drawing her bow and rolling away to avoid the arrows being shot in her direction by their attackers.

Quickly drawing her daggers, Valerie grunted as she brought them up just in time to block the white-haired woman's own blade from reaching her throat. Leonard barked and growled savagely, attempting to pounce on the woman fighting with his mistress only for her to suddenly throw Valerie off balance and spin around to kick his muzzle. She gave a smirk as the canine hit the ground like a rock and turned her attention back to Valerie as the blonde slowly stood up. The two woman stared at each other for a moment before letting out battle cries and charging at one another, their weapons clashing loudly through the air.

Jade hid behind a large rock as several arrows were still being shot at her and nocked two of her owns arrows at once before rolling out of cover and releasing both of her arrows. Two of the five archers who were aiming at her immediately went down as the huntress's own arrows imapled themselves into the skulls of their targets and killed them instantly. The remaining three took aim at Jade, but had no time to react as two fireballs from Morrigan struck two of them in the chest and an arrow from Leliana impeded itself in between the fifth archer's eyes.

Jade huffed to herself as Leliana smiled and winked at her."Okay, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea listening to Alistair's opinion for once and actually giving this human zealot a second chance to join us." The huntress muttered under her breath with a sigh."Well, at least she has good aim."

Having heard Valerie shouting as she fought hard with the white-haired woman, Zoë, Alistair, Sten, and Ser Gilmore all charged at the female assassin from behind. Sten swung his blade at her head but she ducked and rolled across the ground where she swiftly kicked out Alistair's legs and used both of her feet to kick him in the chest before he could fall on her, sending him crashing into Ser Gilmore. She then slashed across Sten's arm, evoking a grunt of pain from the qunari as she spun around and slammed the heel of her boot into chest, knocking him aside.

Zoë quickly backflipped to avoid the woman's dagger connecting with her face and easily landed on her feet with both of her daggers drawn and ready as both she and Valerie lunged at the woman who fought equally against the two of them. The white-haired woman moved very quickly, dodging and blocking all of Zoë's and Valerie's attacks whilst sneaking in more than a few of her own which the two female wardens either dodged or blocked as well. It was an even match, despite being two against one.

Natasha spun around her staff and struck the mage who had tricked them into a trap right the face, smirking when she felt the other mage squeal as she hit the ground like a rock. The other mage swiftly picked herself up off the ground, already beginning to summon a lightning spell that Natasha barely managed to protest herself from in time by forming a barrier. Cullen let out a yell as he charged past Natasha with his sword drawn and aimed at the treacherous female mage.

The mage looked up when he saw him coming for her and released her lightning spell to defend herself from the Templar. This allowed Natasha to release the barrier she'd put up to protect herself from the other mage's lightning spell and she shut her eyes tightly as she summoned another spell which turned Cullen's sword to ice exactly a second before he knocked the female mage across the ground. She recovered in less than a minute, an Arcane bolt erupting from her hands that struck Cullen in the chest and caused to stagger back as he dropped his sword and she scrambled back up to her feet.

"Cullen!" Natasha screamed as he was electrocuted with lightning by the mage to the point where he cried out and fell to his knees. Enraged, Natasha shouted to get the other mage's attention and as soon as the woman turned to face her, a fireball struck her right in the face followed by two more that both hit her in the chest and resulted in her screaming loudly as she was literally burned to ashes.

Tamlen, Jade, and Regina were all locked in combat with the male elf while Zoë and Valerie fought hard with the white-haired woman and everyone else dealt with the other remaining assassins. It was a difficult fight for both sides, but it was clear to everyone that the assassins were losing and their intended targets were winning.

Bringing up her staff, Regina started muttering incoherently as Tamlen swung his sword at the assassin's head and Jade shot arrows at him. In just a few seconds, the elven mage's hands began to glow with a strange bright light and the elven assassin yelped in surprise as he suddenly found himself being levitated high up into the air as Regina raised a glowing a hand upward toward the sky before suddenly closing her hand into fist and thrusting it downwards while slamming her staff roughly against the ground which also resulted in the male elf being thrown to the hard ground like a rock with another yelp of both surprise and pain escaping his lips.

Ducking beneath the white-haired woman's leg as it almost struck her in the head, Zoë swept her foot across the female assassin's, knocking her down. She tried to pin the woman down with her foot, but her opponent rolled aside just in time and was back on her feet in only a moment, twirling around the daggers in her hands as she aimed for Zoë's heart.

Valerie shouted loudly, acting quickly by slamming her elbow against the woman's face before she so much as lay a hand on Zoë. Seeing that the woman was stunned from Valerie's attack and had dropped her daggers because of this, Sten suddenly grabbed the woman by her long white hair and flung her like a rag doll straight into her male elven fellow assassin. The two assassins both grunted as they collided into each other and as a result were sent tumbling across the clearing until they landed roughly on the ground like a pair of heavy rocks and were already out cold by the time they hit the ground.

"Val, wait!" Jade exclaimed as the blonde moved to finish off the last two of their would be assassins. The former noblewoman raised an eyebrow, but Jade shook her head in response."I want to interrogate them!" Valerie nodded curtly and ordered Sten to tie both of the unconscious assassins up with a rope Alistair had given him.

Jade hurried over to her friends with both Regina and Tamlen on her heels and nodded at Sten as a silent command to wake up their captives. The qunari nodded curtly back and grabbed the two out cold assassins by their hair before roughly slamming their heads together and instantly bring them both back to their senses. The male elf was groaning and moaning in pain from the headache he'd just gotten while the woman whined like an annoying da'len and muttered incoherent curses in some other language under her breath as she too was suffering from a terrible headache now. It took a moment for the two of them to fully recover and they finally did they both looked up with sheepish grin's on their faces at the people they had attempted to kill just thirty seconds ago.

The male elf chortled nervously."I believe we both rather thought we would wake up dead." He gave a quick cough."Or not wake up at all as such is this the case."

"Well, they obviously haven't killed us yet." The white-haired woman muttered under her breath with her teeth clenched worriedly.

"That can be easily rectified." Jade said, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at the two assassins with an emotionless look on her face.

"Of that we have absolutely no doubt at all." The male elf replied with a chuckle."But if you kept us both alive, then there must some purpose for this, yes?"

"Unless they plan to torture us." The woman huffed.

"You two are awfully glib for prisoners, aren't you?" Alistair muttered with a frown.

The woman looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and sapphire eyes glinting with the slightest hint of mischief."And you're awfully handsome for a Grey Warden, aren't you, niño bonito?" She purred, grinning slyly when he looked away to hide his rapidly flushing face.

Her elven companion laughed."Well then, I assume that you kept us alive to ask us some questions?" Jade nodded curtly."Let us both save you some time then. My name is Zevran Arainai, Zev to my friends."

"And I'm Simone Casola." The woman said with a nod."We are both members of the Antivan Crows brought here for the sole purpose of killing any surviving Grey Wardens."

Zevran nodded."Which we have both failed at sadly."

Regina moaned."Do I even want to know who hired you to kill us?"

"I'll give you three guesses." Alistair muttered darkly.

Simone smirked wryly."It was a very taciturn man named Loghain and another uglier than a rat guy who I think referred to himself as Howe."

"As in Rendon Howe?!" Valerie demanded, growling when Simone nodded curtly in response.

Jade brought up a hand to calm her friend and flicked her head questioningly at the two assassins."Does this mean you two are loyal to Loghain then?"

Zevran shrugged."We've no idea what his issues are with you people. We figured it was because you threatened his power or something like that."

"You could say that." Natasha muttered with a sigh.

"Beyond that, no we are not at all loyal to him or Rendon Howe." Simone said with a shrug."They can both rot in a ditch or something for all we care, honestly. We were simply contracted to perform a service. Nothing more, nothing less."

Sighing, Jade shook her head."Why are you telling us all of this?"

Zevran laughed as if the query was a funny jest of some kind."Why not? We weren't exactly paid for silence, now were we, my dear Simone?"

Simone snorted."Yes well, we didn't exactly offer it for sale either, Zev."

"So you are not even loyal to your employers then?" Zoë asked, eyebrow raised.

Zevran pressed his lips together thoughtfully."Loyalty is a very interesting concept in my opinion, you know. If you wish, and you are done interrogating us, we could discuss it further."

"We're listening." Regina replied nonchalantly as she leaned lazily against her staff with a small orb of lightening glowing slightly in her open palm."Just make it quick before we change our minds and decided to kill you simply for being so annoying."

Zevran cleared his throat."Well, here's the thing: we failed to kill you so our lives are automatically forfeit. That is just how it works."

Simone sighed."In other words, if you don't kill us now then the Crows most certainly will later on without a doubt."

Zevran coughed."And thing is, we both happen to like living very much, and you are obviously the sort to give the Crows pause, so allow us to serve you instead."

Regina let out a humorless laugh."You two must think we're royally stupid or something!"

Shrugging, Zevran smiled."I don't know about my female companion over here, but I happen to think you're royally tough to kill and utterly gorgeous. One can certainly think of worse punishment than serving a group of deadly sex goddesses."

Rather than blush like a silly da'ashalen with a crush, however, Regina simply rolled her eyes at him and smirked wryly."I've had more than a few of my fellow mages back at the tower flirt with me, mister assassin, so you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that if you wanna make me blush."

Simone laughed loudly."That's one girl you certainly won't be getting, Zev!"

"Keep it in your pants, flat-ears." Jade said coldly to Zevran, which caused Simone to chortle to herself in amusement before she sobered up quickly.

"As mirthful as it is watching you all tell Zevran off," She said with a smirk,", I really think you should consider our offer. Both of us are highly skilled in combat, we know a thing or two about picking locks, poisons, and we can even shine your armor if you'd like!"

Zevran nodded vigorously."We promise you won't ever find a better deal anywhere else."

"And before you even bother asking," Simone said before Jade could question them further,", there's no need to worry about us trying to finish the job later on because even if we did kill you now or sometime later on, then the Crows would just kill us on principle for failing to do so the first time so it's not like Zev and I have anything to lose here regardless of whatever choice you make."

Jade let out a sigh, nodding reluctantly."Very well. We accept your offer."

"Oh thank the Maker, I thought you were just gonna slit our throats and leave us for dead out here by ourselves!" Simone breathed in relief, and so did Zevran.

"What?!" Alistair squeaked."You're taking the assassins with us now?! Does this really seem like a good idea?!"

Natasha scoffed."Interesting choice of words from someone who voted that we take the weird former Chantry Sister with us who claims to be another one of those Andraste wannabes."

"I can't ever imagine why, though." Regina murmured to herself with a roll of her eyes.

Alistair immediately closed his mouth, nodding slowly in agreement with Natasha."Point taken."

"Why do I have the feeling we're going to regret this?" Valerie moaned into her hands as Leonard rubbed his head against her leg and Ser Gilmore sighed quietly to himself.

Jade shrugged, sighing."Maybe we will, maybe we won't, but either way, I'm completely exhausted right now, so let's just get the heck out of here and find a safe place to set up camp for the night. Creators know I've had enough of this place to last me lifetime." She muttered under her breath.

Okay, first of all, Simone is obviously an OC that I created specifically for thos story and so she belongs to me and second of all, I wanted to show more of Leliana's getting recruited by the wardens, but I was in a bit of a rush and this chapter itself seemed long enough already in my opinion, so that's why it turned out this way, but I still do hope you enjoyed it and please remember to review, leave constructive criticism, but no flames!

Elven Translations:

Da'len - Little child; to describe someone young, innocent, or dear.

Papae - Father

Banalhan - Blight

Dareth shiral - Farewell

Emm'asha - My girl

Dirth ar - Tell me

Vhen'alas - (Literally: Our earth) The land itself, as in "the ground".

Shems/Shemlen - Humans

Mythal (Literally: The great protector) Chief elven goddess; Wife of Elgar'nan; Goddess of love, protection, and motherhood.

Da'ashalen - Little girl

Antivan Translations:

Niño bonito (Spanish) - Pretty boy

Next up: Chapter 17:Planning