Prologue

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere was... just an ordinary girl, Kirche had decided upon her first encounter with said individual. She was really small, had pink hair and piercing equally pink eyes, but other than that there was nothing outstanding or interesting about her.

She wasn't very social, rarely spoke to anybody and seemed absorbed in her own little world. Kirche had initially tried to form some sort of rivalry bordering on friendship with the pinkette, since their families shared a lot of history with each other, but all her attempts to goad the smaller girl into a conversation or an argument were met with Louise just tilting her head to the side in confusion at best and a roll of eyes at worst. It wasn't until their second year together at the Tristain academy of magic that Kirche found out why. Apparently Louise went missing when she was about six years old and reappeared just a year before entering the academy, which was the only interesting thing about the girl as far as Kirche was concerned.

Even the possible tale of any adventures or kidnappings she might have experienced turned out to be just a fantasy. After asking Louise about her disappearance she just shrugged and said that she got lost quite badly one time and quite literally fell on her head when she stumbled, losing her memory in the process. She ended up growing up among commoners and only when her gift of magic revealed itself did her memories return. Her family had been searching for her of course, but had no success, since the family she grew up with had left for Albion shortly after Louise joined them.

That also explained her accent which sounded distinctly like a person who grew up on the southernmost side of the floating nation. It also fit with her physique and mannerisms. Though small of stature, Louise was quite fit and fairly well muscled, hinting at hard manual labour at some point in her past, Kirche observed once, when they happened to take a bath at the same time. The pinkette was by no means a monstrously muscled woman, such as some of the warriors Kirche had seen in Germania, but the redhead would not attempt to pick a physical fight with the girl if she could help it.

Her magic... was pretty bad. Which too, was to be expected of someone who grew up a commoner. She only ever seemed to scrape by on the important practical tests and had significant trouble with the theory as well. Even the way she dressed screamed ordinary. She wore dark leather boots which reached up to just below her knees, her school uniform and her hair, her most appealing feature in Kirche's humble opinion, was cut to just above shoulder length and usually set into a somewhat sloppily bound ponytail. Thus, during their second year at the academy Kirche had just accepted her as one of her fellow classmates whom she probably wouldn't hear much from once they finished their education.

It didn't cross Kirche's mind that the appearance of being an ordinary girl with a somewhat interesting background was a little too perfect. And even in her wildest fantasies she could not have imagined the truth about what really happened in the eight years of Louise's disappearance. And yet, the truth would become undeniable to her and everyone else much sooner and in a way that most certainly none of them would have liked.

Louise was a spoiled little six year old. Her mother was strict but her father took every opportunity to spoil his youngest daughter. Any wish she had, she just had to tell him and it would be fulfilled, as long as it wasn't anything too outrageous. Even her playmates were of the highest noble calibre, going so far as to include the crown princess of Tristain herself. It should not come as a surprise then, that when the little girl encountered her mother's familiar, the mighty and magnificent manticore, Louise had immediately asked her father to procure her a familiar of her own. He had just laughed and told her that she was still too young to even attempt magic, let alone summon a familiar.

He should have known that his youngest would not be satisfied by an answer such as this. He also should have kept his spare wand in a place she didn't know about. Unfortunately, he did neither. Which led to little Louise sneaking out in the middle of the night with said wand clutched tightly in her hands. She went to the nearby forest and was met with a slight problem. She had never before even tried to cast a spell, which left her entirely clueless about what her next step should be. She decided to improvise. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

As it turned out, quite a lot.

Her incantation was completely flawed. Her wand did not make the right movements, but was swung wildly through the air. And when Louise finished... there was an explosion. She must have fainted at some point, as the only things she remembered were the endless darkness surrounding her and the bright light somewhere in the distance, which loomed ever closer as second after agonisingly slow second passed by.

And she woke up in a different place. A different country... And a different world.

The place she woke up in turned out to be close to castle called Redcliffe. Which was quite lucky on her part, she would later come to realize. Still, unlike the place she had used to try her summoning, this one laid among almost barren, rusty red mountains.

After getting over the initial shock of waking up in an unfamiliar setting and subsequent panicking, Louise had to move on. It was lucky her parents never bothered to tell her to stay in one place if she got lost, since she was rarely permitted to leave her family mansion without company. Because had she stayed in one place, she would have likely starved or frozen to death quite quickly. It still took her almost five days to reach a village close to the castle on top of one of the mointains, which she spied on her fourth day of travel.

When the thirst grew too strong, she had to drink water she found in small puddles on the ground. The water tasted horrible and made her sick to her stomach, but the thirst was just too strong. The pinkette didn't remember ever crying so much or calling for her parents as often as during these five days.

When she finally reached the small village nestled in the shadow of the impressive looking structure on the mountain, she was exhausted, starving and severely dehydrated. Her once pristine night dress made of finest silk was nothing more than a dirty rag at that point and her cute shoes had been dirtied beyond recognition by dust and grime. Her feet were raw and bleeding from the long walk, the shoes being made for looks more than functionality.

It was already getting dark when she stumbled towards the bridge that crossed a small stream of water. The people were mostly in their homes, preparing dinner and going about their usual business. Luckily a few people were still running some last errands outside, among them a young girl, around sixteen years old or so. Her name was Valena and she was the daughter of the local drunkard of a blacksmith.

She saw a small shape stumble and collapse powerlessly close to the river that eventually found it's way into Lake Calenhead, crawling pathetically towards the fast streaming water. Valena did the only thing any sane human would have done in her place and rushed to help the child. She quickly found out that the girl did not speak her language, but rather what appeared to be Orlesian to her ears. Still, her cracked lips, dirt smeared face and overall horrible condition spoke volumes and Valena quickly grabbed the already passed out Louise and brought her to her father, Owen.

The old smith was a little too fond of alcohol and as a rule was not a very pleasant person to be around, but he loved his daughter more than life itself and was not cruel enough to let a small child die on his watch. The following week Louise spent with the blacksmith's family, getting better and trying to communicate her noble status to these commoners. This endeavour was unsuccessful, as her fine clothing was beyond saving and was disposed of on the very first day and her Albionese was horrible. She was able to tell them her name and learned theirs in return, but that was about it.

Days turned into weeks and once Louise got better she attempted to go to the castle, only to be rebuffed by the guards. Owen, not having known about her little expedition until one of the knights brought Louise back by the scruff of her neck was obviously not amused. Louise was forced to work in the smith's shop doing the little insignificant chores Owen could not be bothered with. Her grasp on Albionese had improved enough in that time that she was at least able to understand what he wanted her to do as long as it wasn't anything requiring a lengthy explanation. Her initial refusal to do as she was told had her spanked quite soundly and after crying her eyes out in the corner she did not refuse a second time.

Weeks turned into months and as time passed she learned to talk better and better. About three months after her arrival she was finally able to tell Owen that she was a noble and wished to speak to the people in the castle that was visible from the village. The bearded man did not appear to believe her, but he did agree to take her there. With the old blacksmith being able to explain her situation, they eventually found themselves before Arl Eamon Guerrin of Redcliffe. He listened to Owen, when he explained Louise's plight and turned to the little girl when the blacksmith was finished.

He spoke a somewhat passable Tristanian, though he called it Orlesian for some reason and was able to coax some more information out of her. Most importantly, he learned that Louise ended up in Redcliffe as a result of a spell. It didn't take him long to send a messenger to the Circle of Magi about a little girl with a possible gift of magic. He also concluded that her family might be orlesian nobility who reside in the Tevinter Imperium, from Louise's description of how their society was ruled by mages. The words Tristain did not ring any bells with him and he paid it little mind, as she was still just a little girl. He did promise her to send word through his political contacts to try and find her family. Needless to say it was in vain in the end.

Soon an envoy from the Circle arrived. They put her through a number of tests to determine whether she was able to use magic or not. The results were positive and Louise had to say goodbye to the people she had grown to know and, though she wouldn't admit it at this point, was now rather fond of.

She was taken to the Circle of Magi, where the mages explained their rules to her. Louise once again cried.

Forsaking her noble title? Not leaving the Circle without permission of the First Enchanter? It all seemed so farfetched, so unreal to her, so unlike everything she expected her life to be. And yet, here she was. It would take her years to leave the tower, years in which she would begin doubting her own memories of growing up in a country called Tristania, where mages ruled over commoners. Because no matter how hard she studied magic, there never was even a sign of a spell capable to transport people any significant distance let alone to what appeared to be a different world.

Then there were the elves. There were none in Redcliffe village, so it was never a topic, but here in the Circle it was a different story altogether. They were numerous, not rivaling the humans in number, but still quite a lot. When Louise first saw one, all the stories she had heard back in Tristania floated up in her mind. She was frozen in fear and while she didn't display her emotions openly, she did her best to avoid them for the better part of five months, until one day she was assigned to study under one enchanter who just happened to be an elf. After a couple of weeks passed, without the elven mage eating, killing or maiming one of the children under his care, Luise started to relax in his presence and was forced to reevaluate her views on the sharp eared race. Eventually she even made a few elven friends around her age, finally conquering her irrational fear.

She had significant trouble learning spells from the primal school of magic, but was luckily rather gifted in the other three schools, so much so, that she was one of the youngest mages to ever go through the Harrowing. When she left the Circle with Duncan, she had just turned thirteen years of age. Even the experienced and hardened warrior who always said that he would use any resources available to him to fight the darkspawn was hesitant to take such a young girl with him. But in the end, because of her less than favourable situation within the Circle and with the templars, as well as her own insistence, he made his choice and invoked the right of conscription. With him she travelled to Highever to pick up a second viable recruit. Though the intended recruit died that night, they did leave with the Teyrn's son, who's family was betrayed by their allies.

Louise had for the first time taken another human's life that night and it wouldn't be the last.

The following year would stay with her for the rest of her life. In this seemingly not so significant amount of time, Louise would become a skilled mage, learn the secrets of the Arcane Warriors, fall in love only to be rebuffed by her object of affection called Alistair because of her young age, witness the fall of a legendary witch and partake in many battles for the sake of everyone endangered by the darkspawn blight.

But above all, she would survive the joining ritual and become a grey warden.

Led by the charismatic young noble from Highever, they would unite the unlikeliest of allies and together defeat the Archdemon, their leader dying in the process. Or at least that is what Louise assumed had happened. Because once the former noble's blade pierced the Archdemon's skin to deliver the lethal strike the pinkette once again found herself in the black void with the familiar bright light in the distance coming closer.

Before she knew it, she was once again in Halkegenia. Her grey warden armor, picked up and fixed by the dwarven smiths of Orzammar in the deep roads, was with her, as if to remind her that all of the past years have not been just a vivid dream. She no longer was the helpless little girl that appeared in the middle of nowhere and survived by sheer luck and therefore had no trouble finding the next best human settlement and figuring out her location. She was in Albion, and despite the brewing unrest with the newly formed Reconquista pushing for power, she had little trouble making it off the floating island and once again to Tristania.

It took a significant amount of self control and inventiveness to return to her family. Louise decided that a story of losing her memory and only recently regaining it was far more believable than the tale of her adventures in Thedas, a different world altogether.

She didn't know how much time was left to her, because the taint of the darkspawn was still as present inside her as ever, but she was determined to make the best of it. It was a slap in the face that she could not bear children because of the taint, but she would work her way around it and when her allotted time was up, she would have to take her own life for fear of turning into a ghoul. It wasn't hard to convince her parents that she was telling the truth. They were simply overjoyed to have their youngest daughter back, so much so that they didn't bother looking too deeply into it after they confirmed her identity by both questioning and magic.

Her weapons and armor were securely hidden in a nearby town and later brought to her chambers and stowed away in one of the many trunks. Louise, now fourteen years old, spent the rest of the year getting reacquainted with her family and Halkegenia in general. This presented a far more difficult challenge, since she couldn't afford to let people know that she was gone from this world for eight years, but she managed without slipping up too badly.

When she turned fifteen, though very much unwilling to let her go just a year after they found her again, her parents sent her to the Tristain academy of magic and the next year passed without an incident.

She had trouble with the halkegenian magic, since the schools she was good at didn't even exist in this world with only the primal schools being represented. And those had enough subtle differences to them that even the few spells she could perform back in Ferelden were hard to replicate without arousing suspicion. Louise was time and again tempted to cast the spells the way she was used to, but held herself back for fear of ending up in a mental institution or branded a heretic by the Brimiric Church.

The religion was another thing Louise struggled with. Since she spent the majority of her life in Thedas, she had all but forgotten about the local faith and was pretty much convinced that the Chant of Light was speaking the truth. Alas, she was now forced to re-evaluate her views. Slowly but surely the pink haired girl found herself doubting both, yet also believing them at the same time. Could it not be possible that both faiths had some truth to them and of course plenty of lies and over exaggerations as well? In the end she figured it didn't matter as long as she kept up appearances.

And thus, time went on. Louise's mother was attempting to secure a fiancée for her youngest daughter and the daughter in turn was pondering how to break to her mother that she would not be getting pregnant anytime soon and that her value as a bride was significantly reduced because of this.

They were small, casual problems compared to the ones Louise had grown used to dealing with in Ferelden. From time to time she would take out her armor from the trunk she brought with her to the academy, as if to reaffirm that it really did happen. And when nobody was around, she would sometimes take it with her outside, find a place she would not be disturbed at and practice.

Everything had fallen into a comfortable routine. And Louise was glad for it.

Until one night, in the beginning of her second year at the academy, Louise woke up covered in cold sweat. In her ears she could still hear the roar of the awakened old God that had been corrupted and turned into an archdemon.

A Blight was coming to Halkegenia. And Halkegenia was NOT prepared.