Blood. I could hear it rushing in my ears, feel it pulsing through my finger tips in the cold air. I could see it contrast against the white snow on the ground. I could smell it in the very wind that howled past me as I ran towards the trebuchets. The herald was still fighting there, at least I hoped she was. Haven was a ruin, charred and collapsing and gone. There was nothing left to but the bones of buildings still aflame or red hot and turning to cinders. As I ran, as I tried to remember my purpose of saving the Herald, those words still rang in my ears. A voice I did and didn't recognise.

"You do your mother proud, dear girl." she had said before, the elf with the steely yellow eyes.

Now she held my chin and I was fearful, scared and frightened of what might happen. I could feel the tears on my cheeks, see them ripple in my vision but she glared down at me, her face inches from mine and her voice as sharp as a knife.

"Remember whose blood flows in your veins."

I shut my eyes against the memory, yes, I had to admit now, these visions were in fact memories. They were too real, too close to me. They were my memories from time I shouldn't know.I should have said something to Solas. He could have helped, he knew what strange dreams meant he could have done something, gave me a potion or at least told me what they were. That all seemed fruitless now, it was all too late. Everything seemed a pointless endeavour. Look at what this Elder One had done. Look at the mess he'd made of this village, the lives he destroyed and for what? That was the question. Why cause this destruction, why create the breach in the first place? He was powerful, that much was for certain. Even had he not an army of templars, enslaving a dragon to do his bidding required something beyond magic. What that was as yet eluded me. All I knew at that moment in time, I had to save the Herald. If I never understood the images and flashes that plagued my mind, if I fell to protect her- the greater good... At least then I could finally say I had done something truly meaningful. I had to snap out of this. This day dream had gone on far too long. This was a battle field and I was contemplating the inner most workings of my mind? That was not me. I was not myself. I had to find myself again and myself (apparently) charged headlong into battles with unknown enemies of proven deadly power.

And suddenly there I was, once again risking it all. My feet no longer dragged in the snow for it had all but melted from the scrambling feet and heat of the surrounding flames. They licked the air around me, crackled and roared in my ears like the ferocious tongue of the very dragon that swooped menacingly close to the ground. Close to the trebuchets ahead, close to the Herald. Too close.

"Hold on, Evelyn." I panted, hoping my voice would somehow carry to her even over the noise of flames and war. I willed it with all my might, she had to know she was not alone. By the time I finally found her, my stomach sank and fear over took me... had I been too late? She was standing face to face with the twisted form of what I could only assume was the elder one. His face a mess of flesh and lyrium. It ripped at the jaw and clung by weak strands to his neck. His body was a tall and twisted form of malice and claws and he towered over everything. What was the meagre Herald against this creature? A young girl, shaking, cold and alone. A fear sat heavy in her eyes and flickered in her clattering teeth. Her brow was cut and her left eye red and bleeding. A child scared in the snow... And yet there she stood, a sword brandished in her quivering hands and she faced this monster down. All I could do was watch as it unfolded. His voice rumbled over the chaos about his divinity, 'the will that was Corypheus.' But the herald stood fast. She did not waver and she did not speak, what else could she do? Now was as good a time as any to save her. I took my chance, a moment of pause between the two that would not have lasted long and I couldn't risk endangering Evelyn any further.

Before I could tell myself otherwise I was charging between the two, notching an arrow to my bow as I did. The twisted Elder one for a brief moment looked perplexed and then back to... nothing. His face bore no expression. His eyes held no soul.

"Lavell-"

"Evelyn go!" I shouted to her, cutting her off before she had time to argue.

"And so comes an elf to carry the human's burden. The people have fallen further than I last remembered." He sneered, the strands of his flesh stretching horribly across his face.

"Nevalla, I'm not leaving you." she pleaded, her voice still quivering behind me.

"You are The Herald of Andraste, the Inquisition needs you! Do what must be done Evelyn, we cannot lose you!" I shouted, my eyes and arrow ever fixed on the Elder One.

His sneer fell and his face dropped, "Enough. This shall end now." He raised his gruesome claws to the sky and I awaited the inevitable flash of that terrible red fire but an all mighty clang and crack of a rope sounded over the hills. For a moment it was the bell that stopped time. I turned sharply behind me to see one final trebuchet fire into the side of the mountain. The Herald stood panting, her sword falling loose in her grip.

"What did you do..." I whispered as I heard the rumble of the world around me. She levelled me with a gaze.

"What must be done." she said firmly, her jaw tightening as the tonnes of snow rushed towards us from the mountainside. It would smother Haven and everything in it. We both knew it, even Corypheus knew it. His dragon lifted him safely from harms way just as the snow ploughed through the walls, a look of utter disgust eteched on his destroyed face. After that there was no more time to think. I acted, the only way I knew how to: On blind instinct. As the snow charged towards us, I grabbed the Herald by the arm and dragged her through the collapsing floorboards of the trebuchet. I did not know where it would lead, I did not know if it would get us to safety but I did know that that week square of flooring was our only hope of surviving. As the mountains fell down and roared on our ears and as we fell further into the darkness I could not think of whether or not we would survive. All I could think about was the set of yellow eyes watching me and how in the shadow of the drop, I saw an approving smirk creep into their corner.

"Are you angry with me?" A voice whispered, so soft and unsure and my mother's.

"No. No I'm not angry." I heard myself answer into the dark, but it did not sound convincing.

"I know this is a lot to understand. But she thought... I thought it was important for you to know why you are always running. Why your life has been as it has, why it has been so lonely, why June stole you from me into his service. She can protect you now, in a way that I never could." she explained, and Mythal bless her, she sounded so guilty. I remembered holding her hands, bringing them to my face so that she clasped my cheeks.

"You are my protector because you are my mother. You are my family, my whole family." I remembered she smiled then and tears fell from her beautiful crystalline eyes. I smiled back at her, "You took care of me when he did not. You raised me to be good, you taught me all that I know and you made me who I am. He would have had me a vengeful, power hungry villain like the rest of them. I will not be like them. You have made sure of that." I told her, my heart young and truthful and earnest. "Her grace told me to remember who's blood flows in my veins and I shall, but my heart... my heart, mother, is yours."

She stroked a strand of my hair away from my face and smiled one last time. "And I will always cherish it. You have a good heart my child. It is of the light. You are kind and you are strong and you are good, so unlike your father."

"I will never be like him." I hissed, clouds suddenly covering over the world around us and I shuddered.

"I know." was all mother said, her words honest and true and the clouds dispersed. "But remember in all his years of wars and revenge he did do one good thing."

"What, mother?" I asked.

She brought me closer and kissed my forehead, "He gave me you."