The Youth of the Dalish: A Dragon Age Fan-Fiction Story

Twin Sister

Juli and Doreen rushed towards Mother. Every part of her body was exposed and bruised. Theodore appeared to be studying her as if looking for something. For a moment, the awkwardness of another young boy looking at Mother's naked body lingered. He fixed his spectacles and started healing Mother. In no time, her bruises were gone and her eyes fluttered open. She squinted her eyes, trying to see what was going on in the dim light. They glanced about the room. She made a sudden jump as her eyes landed at the back of the witch. They flicked back to Juli.

"Get out of here. It's not safe." She spoke quickly. Her face was that of prey that had been hunted for months by wolves. She and Tobias must had been through horrifying things here.

"We're not leaving without you." Theresa softly placed a hand on Mother's shoulder. Cathy stared at the tall woman with nothing but bewilderment in her face.

"There's no time to explain." Erick stated.

Mother complied and nodded. She wrapped one arm around the neck of the sturdy woman. She got to her feet and cocked her head towards Tobias, "Help him."

Erick walked towards the unconscious man.

"He's dead." The witch said plainly. "I'm sorry, Cathy." Her whole body was a blue fire that engulfed her and the headless corpse next to her. She held Father's head on one hand.

Mother gazed at the witch with nothing but hatred. "I'll never forgive you for what you did, sister."

Oddly enough, the blaze didn't burn anything. While she burnt, the witch's eyes were filled with black pupils and brown irises. And somehow the wry grin of hers was gone. It was replaced by a solid line, however, this one was somehow different—a human smile. Her eyes gazed at Mother. "You always had everything." Her voice was more human, ridded of that evil cadence that it had about it."Husband, son, people that love you and cared for you." Her eyes darted at all the people that had come to rescue Cathy. "I never had any of that."

"You chose that when you decided to use Mother and Father for blood magic." Cathy's tone was raspy. As if the mention of her parents poked her throat and made it difficult to speak.

The witch said nothing. She turned back to look at the bodiless head she held under her armpit. "Yes. I chose that, for love."

Mother glanced at Tobias' lifeless body. Her eyes shimmered with tears in the dark. This was the man, besides Father, that had been by her side this whole time. And her sister killed him in cold blood. Did she really kill him? Or was it Father's demonized self?

Mother spat on the damp floor. "You're sick." She said as she contemptuously turned to look at the witch of her sister.

This time Mother's sister looked like she wanted to say something but said nothing. Her whole body was a blue bonfire that grew by the second.

"Don't you try anything, witch." Eva said defiantly as she brandished her daggers.

The witch ignored her. "I'm sorry about him." The blue flame started to consume them both . "Kurl—"

"Don't you dare to say his name. That's not him." Mother cut the witch off. Her tone was as sharp as the edge of a knife.

"He wanted Tobias dead. Not me." The flames had consumed the corpse and head of the darkspawn, half of the witch's body had just vanished as well. "I'm so sorry sister it had be to this way." The front drapes of her hair had been consumed by the blue blaze as well, revealing sharp elven ears. Once her face was bared by the fire, the resemblance was uncanny—she looked exactly like Mother. For the shortest second Juli could see the outline of tenderness in her face as well. And then the fire took over the entire face and she was gone.

Juli felt nothing but sheer confusion. All faces turned to look at Cathy.

Mother still stared at where the witch...her sister had been. The tears in her eyes were gone, however, her face was a forlorn grimace. She snapped and turned to all of the eyes that bore into hers. "Yes, that was my twin sister."

Everyone was baffled by this. They all had questions, especially Juli. He wanted to know why Mother never mentioned any of this to him; having a twin sister, that sister murdering her parents. Juli wanted to know if he had inherited his gift from this witch, he surmised that that was the most logical explanation to it. "We are all related," the darkspawn had said—he was talking about the witch and Juli. He glanced at Doreen, whom was as confused as he was. She and Mother gazed at each other. Doreen almost abruptly turned her eyes away from Mother, as if feeling betrayed. Everyone had the right to feel betrayed—Mother had lied to everyone all this time. Were there any other secrets she kept from them?

The keeper came rushing towards them. "Cathy, are you ok?"

If Omar had felt betrayed like they did, he didn't show it. Cathy's eyes turned to him and she gave him a quick nod.

"Why haven't you freed Tobias?" The keeper said quickly.

They all glanced at one another. Their plain expressions said everything.

Omar's expression sagged. His small eyes gazed at Tobias, his face was all pain for the fallen hunter.

"Hate to interrupt the moment," a male voice startled them all, "but we have a problem."

They all turned to witness something that could only be best described as a nightmare. They hissed, groaned and brandished their deadly claws—the caged darkspawn had freed themselves.