When Fate Summons (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Heart & Soul

Anawyn sat in the long grass of the marsh, idly pulling grasses and braiding them. Cybele sat with her, watching with fascination as Anawyn's hands created a crown of the braided grass. "Why do you do that?" Cybele asked quietly.

The other girl rarely spoke to Anawyn, and she grasped at the chance eagerly. "Because it's fun," she said. "Why don't you try it?"

"But what is it good for?" Cybele asked, looking confused.

"Play, I guess," Anawyn said, surveying the braided crown and shrugging. She looked shyly into the other girl's golden eyes. "I like to pretend to be a real princess."

"Why?"

Anawyn looked around for Granny. She didn't like it when the girls (usually Anawyn) talked about their real lives, saying it was bad for their training. Anawyn leaned forward, whispering to Cybele. "You see, I'm kind of a princess, twice, but not really."

Cybele was intrigued despite herself. "What do you mean?"

"My father is the king, so I'm sort of a princess in the human kingdom. Only I'm not, because my mother and father aren't married and my mother's a dwarf. And my mother was a princess in Orzammar, that's the dwarf kingdom, so that should mean I'm a princess, but it doesn't because ... well, I don't really understand why not. My mother tried to explain it once, but I couldn't follow it."

Cybele thought about that for a moment. "I don't know who my father is," she offered. "My mother says I look like him, though."

"My mother says I look like my father, too!" The two girls smiled at each other for a moment, pleased to have found some common ground.

"Your mother's a dwarf?" Cybele asked. When Anawyn nodded, Cybele said, "I've only met a couple of dwarves. They were hairy, ugly men. Scary."

"My Uncle Oghren is like that, but he's funny, too. My mother's very pretty. But she can be scary when she gets mad. She's in charge of a lot of people, though, so she has to be that way."

"My mother's scary when she gets mad, too." Cybele shivered, but didn't elaborate.

Anawyn looked up, toward the tumble-down shack in the midst of the marsh. Granny was walking around it, seeming to survey the place. Every once in a while she'd stop and mutter some words,

tracing what looked like runes in the air. Circles swirled on the ground where she'd been, circles that looked as though they were only held in check by the force of Granny's will. "Do you think she can teach us to do that?" Anawyn whispered.

"I don't know. My mother said some magic wasn't for young girls, but Granny ... seems to think differently." Cybele's eyes were worried as she watched the older woman.

"Where do you think we're going?" Anawyn asked. Cybele only shrugged. "I miss my mother," Anawyn said sadly.

"Me, too," said the other girl. They sat quietly for a moment before Cybele plucked a few long grasses, holding them out to the red-headed girl. "Will you teach me?" And they played with the grasses until Granny had finished what she was doing and was ready with their afternoon meal.