A/N: I just realized that this story just hit the 50k word mark! Yaaaay! And there's plenty more to go. This is going to be a frakin' looong one. I hope ya'll will stay for the ride. I promise there'll be things you'll love and also things you'll want to punch me for. But that's what all good reads have. Just wanted to say thank you all so much for reading. Without you guys, there'd be no point to keep writing. :)

Ariel Wild- you'll just have to see won't you?

On to the story!

A couple of Dalish hunters met them at the edge of their camp. One was a middle aged Elf with reddish brown hair and a muscular build. He had grey, serious eyes and stared at Thalion warily, but nodded in greeting. The second was a boy maybe a little older than Mina. He had short, spiky brown hair and green eyes that looked playful and curious. He smiled at Thalion and the two women and bowed his head respectfully.

"Thalion, you're back! We thought you'd been captured by Shems or something!" the boy teased. His eyes flickered to Mina and then to Ceras. Mina smirked when she saw his eyes linger on Ceras.

"Who are they?" the older man asked with a tone of authority.

Thalion gestured to Ceras first then to Mina, "They are my daughters. This is Ceras, the eldest, and this is Mina, the youngest. Ceras is a fine warrior, and Mina's good with a bow... and she's a mage."

Mina winced when Thalion told them about her magic. Much to her surprise, the older Elf put his hand on her shoulder gently and smiled kindly at her, "Welcome to Clan Lavellan, Da'len." He nodded at Ceras, less happily, "And you as well, Lethallin. I am Serren, Master Hunter, like your father. This one is Elros, a hunter of the clan."

Elros grinned at Thalion, "And someday, I'll be a Master Hunter too! Right Thalion?"

Their father chuckled and nodded. "Sure you will. As soon as you can actually shoot something," he teased.

Elros made a face and was about to say something when Serren interrupted, "Let us show them to the camp before you start bickering with him again, Elros."

With that, he turned and started walking through the dense underbrush. The other four Elves followed him; Keter stayed a little behind as not to startle anyone. Mina could feel the excitement building within her. She was beyond curious to why Serren greeted her with such warmth, when he clearly didn't hold much love for Thalion. It seemed to her that people were often first judged by their parents' deeds. He seemed to be less happy about Ceras' presence. She couldn't imagine why. Ceras was a good person. Her freeing slaves, being patient with Mina, and trying to put aside her hatred of Thalion was proof enough of that.

There were a few dozen other Elves waiting in a clearing ahead. They seemed to be camped on a hill, encircled by trees on the edge of a meadow. It was quite beautiful the way their aravels seemed to belong within the trees. They really did look like boats on land. At the moment, their sails were down. Mina sighed internally. She'd wanted to see them as Merrill had described them. Instead she admired the carvings in the wood from afar. It seemed that they told a different story on each. Thalion's voice jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Aneth ara, Keeper!" he said happily.

"Aneth ara, Thalion," came a somewhat bored reply.

Mina looked up to see a short, black haired woman that looked maybe 35 years old. Her eyes were a vibrant gold-brown and despite how short she was, she was very curvy. She had a devious smile on her full lips as she surveyed the two newcomers and Thalion. Mina raised an eyebrow as she studied the Keeper. That smile reminded her of Isabela's. But, what surprised her was that she was nothing like Marethari from Merrill's clan as far as dress went, and definitely personality. Mina had thought that all Keepers were... older and stern. She wore a wrap to cover her breasts, brown leather pants, and a long grey coat with black feathers by the neck.

"I thought the Dwarf was only sending one person to help us. And I thought she'd be a Shem," she said raising her eyebrows. Her tone didn't seem hostile or welcoming. In fact, she was almost impossible to read. The only thing that gave away that she was pleased was her smirk and the way she eyed the two girls.

Thalion grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, "It seems Elgar'nan favored me. I found my daughters."

Her eyes had a flash of anxiety that Mina barely caught, but she quickly recovered and bowed her head to them, "I am Keeper Deshanna Istimaethoriel. Pleased to meet you, daughters of Thalion. You are most welcome in our Clan. It is, after all, your birth clan as well."

Ceras put a fist over her heart and bowed her head, "I am Ceras, Keeper Istimaethoriel. Andaran atish'an."

Mina mentally freaked out when they all looked to her. She didn't know much Elven, and she didn't want the Keeper to think she was stupid. "Erm... Andaran atish'an, Keeper Istimaethoriel. I'm Mina, and I was sent by Varric to aid you with... whatever you need my skills for," she managed to squeak out.

"Keeper Deshanna, please. You are both Lethallin as far as I'm concerned," she said and turned to Thalion, "Your Eldest, take her to be evaluated by Ashalya. I'm going to test the youngest myself."

Thalion frowned and looked at Mina then back to the Keeper. "Ma nuvenin, Keeper... She is still new to her power," he warned before motioning for Ceras to follow. She scowled at him and looked at Mina with a worried expression. Clearly she didn't think it would go well for Mina.

Mina smiled weakly and shrugged, "Hey, don't worry about me, ok? You just don't let Keter scare anyone away!"

Ceras nodded, still worried.

"Keter won't hurt anyone. You might though. Watch that aim of yours, sister," she teased.

The wolf licked Mina's hand before following his master towards some straw dummies.

Mina turned back to face Deshanna who was watching her, arms crossed. To say that she was intimidating was an understatement. The woman clearly knew what she was doing, and would, no doubt, be tough on Mina despite her being so new to her magic.

'That might be a good thing,' Mina thought.

"So, you're Gelsomina? You look like your mother, and it seems you carry her talent. It is odd that your sister isn't a mage as well."

"Huh? What talent? Was my mom a mage too?" Questions flooded Mina's mind. She had little to no memory of her mother. Anything she learned might help her find Lani.

Keeper Deshanna tilted her head and answered cautiously, "You... don't remember her? How curious. I'll have to look into that. For now, we're going to see what you can do. That sound magic of yours has only been done by your mother."

Mina was stunned. How could she tell? It wasn't as if Mina was showing it off. She hadn't lost control of herself or anything, so there weren't random bolts of lightning or flames.

Deshanna started walking towards a large purple tent. Mina scrambled to keep up with her.

"How-?"

"You give off a high pitched humming sound. No one else does, and I learned your mother's sound. It was slightly lower than yours. That's also how I knew you were a mage," she explained.

They entered the tent to find it filled with candles, potions, large tomes, and several totems that represented the Gods. It looked like a witchdoctor's hut or something. Except it felt more peaceful. Mina could almost feel something watching over them.

Deshanna turned around and spread her arms, "Let's start your training then, shall we?"

It had been a week since they had arrived to the clan, and Mina was starting to get frustrated. She hadn't heard anything from Varric, and she hadn't found much out about the humans that were bothering her clan. The only thing that kept her from screaming and burning the Wycome to the ground was the fact that she'd been making astounding progress with her magic control. Since Deshanna started helping her, she'd only caught something on fire once. Luckily, Deshanna had been ready and cast a freezing spell on it.

Mina was in the city with Ceras, attempting to gather more information once again. In a week, she'd only managed to get two pieces of information: they were Chantry extremists and they were somewhere not far to the north. That didn't really narrow it down too much. Sure, she knew who they were, but there were a lot more questions. Like, why they were targeting Elves, what did they hope to gain, where exactly were they located, and who was their leader. She might be able to reason with their leader if they got a demonstration of what she could do. Most groups got too scared if the opponent became too much of a threat. So far, they'd only killed three hunters that were off alone. They'd scared a few more younger ones. The way she saw it, they were more of a pestilence than a real problem, as was often the case.

It was late afternoon when the two women entered a promising looking tavern. It was probably the eighth one they'd been to that day. Ceras was ready to call it a day and enjoy themselves for a while until they were ready to get back to the clan. Mina wasn't near ready to quit! She was determined to find something out. Anything would do. She just wanted something to take her mind off of Kirkwall and what must've been going on.

Mages were probably going crazy, panicking or tearing shit up. Templars probably blamed them for what happened and were frothing at the mouth, ready to put them down. What scared her most was thinking that Bethany and Merrill were in danger. Plus, Anders had been the one to cause everything... Mina took a deep breath and shook her hands to calm herself. Electricity had begun to buzz at the tips of her fingers.

Ceras noticed and put a hand on her shoulder, "Are you sure you want to keep going? I don't think Varric will mind if you take a little longer than expected."

"No. We have to finish this as soon as possible," she answered and walked into the tavern.

Mina focused herself and started to analyze the situation. It was pretty busy for a weekday. And, as most taverns, it smelled of old ale and piss. There was a group of 10 men sitting at a table near the back left corner. One blonde waitress serving them. Four more men at another table talking quietly. They were off duty guardsmen. A woman bard was singing about the Grey Wardens; she had a dagger in her right boot just in case. Two women and a little girl were going upstairs to their room; they were traveling merchants. Three men sat at the table closest to her and Ceras. A brunette waitress was flirting with the youngest one with dark green eyes. She wanted a bigger tip. And at the bar was an older man, clutching an Andrastian amulet. That was her man.

"Bingo. That's the guy we need to talk to," she said, making a beeline for him. Ceras trotted after her, trusting in her sister.

She slid onto a barstool casually and ordered a drink, trying to seem uninterested. The man eyeballed her and Ceras and clutched at his amulet even tighter. He was clearly paranoid. Mina turned and smiled at him kindly. He had grey hair and a weathered face with tired violet eyes.

"You from around here? We just got in from Kirkwall. Serious shit going on there... Say, we're looking for work if you know anyone. I can clean and my sister's a pretty good cook," she chatted.

The man gulped down another drink and shook his head quickly, " 'Fraid I don't know about much work. You're a long way from home. Can't say I blame you since all that magic went wrong. It's dangerous stuff. You might go to the Chanter's board. They always have something."

Mina smiled at the bartender and sipped her drink, glancing at Ceras. Ceras tapped her fingers on the bar to signal that she understood. If the man tried to run, she was to stop him from getting to the door.

"Nice amulet you have. Do you work with the Chantry then?"

The human stiffened up and narrowed his eyes at Mina, "No. It was a gift."

Mina's hand furthest away from him slid to her knife on her hip; the other was around her mug.

"Hm... It seems familiar to me somehow. Oh! I know where I saw it before."

The man flew off of his stool, just as Mina had thought he would and started to run for the door. Before he was five feet away, Ceras had her sword out, barring his way. Her eyes were ablaze, daring him to try and run.

Mina pulled out her knife and put it to his throat from behind. Over the past week, they'd been hunting together just about every day. During that time, they'd strengthened their teamwork. It came in handy in situations such as this. They'd already lost another potential lead earlier that week. The bartender was about to interfere, but Ceras shot him a look that sent him away.

Mina got close to his ear and snarled at the grey haired man, "You're going to tell me what you know. Now. I'm not going to kill you, but I assure you that if you make me wait that you're going to wish you were dead."

Ceras chuckled and pitched in, "People have always said she has a wicked temper."

The man sighed in defeat and put his hands in the air. From the look of him, he clearly wasn't a fighter, but Mina expected more resistance out of him. Something was off. She gave him some space, but kept her knife out just in case.

"Please, don't hurt me. I-I just want to go home. If they sent you, I promise I haven't told anyone a thing!" he pleaded.

Mina's eyebrows knit together in confusion. He was being hunted by the people who were hurting the clan. Had he run away?

Ceras put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to a far corner where they wouldn't be disturbed. If they talked quietly enough, they wouldn't be heard by many. Mina wasn't foolish enough to think that no one would be listening in. That was the way it went. The more you tried to hide, the harder someone would try to hear. And if you hid, that gave away that whatever it was, was important. The less you hid, the less people would be interested.

Mina leaned on the table and studied the old man before starting to question him.

"We're not from whoever you're running from, but we are trying to get rid of them. Do you know where they are?"

"Y-yes, but if I tell you, they'll kill me!"

"I'll make you a promise: If you tell us where they are, there won't be any left alive to kill you."