UnDalish

The man in the mirror.

"Fen'Harel ma ghilana!" An insult I had heard since I was a young child. I didn't fit in amongst the rest of my clan from the very beginning. On the day of my birth my mother died from the strain of child birth, and my father was so stricken with grief had turned to blood magic to seek his revenge on me, a small newborn babe. The hunters of the clan had taken him down quickly and I was saved, but the clan believes that some of his dark magic had transferred on to me. The Dalish, you see, are very superstitious people. I cannot say that they are wrong though, seeing as when my magic appeared I had conjured spirits from the fade in the form of dark shadows. Seeing the shadows bow to my will caused the clan to fear me even more so than before. That, and even though I was a mage I refused to carry a staff, choosing instead to wield a scythe of my own making. Very undalish of me in their eyes. As I grew though they seemed to accept my faults, even going as far as to make me second to the keeper on the day I receive my vallaslin, the position my father had once held in the clan. A great honor. But, because of their fear of my power I had been given the vallaslin of Falon'din, the friend of death and god of funerals, an insult, they probably would have given me the vallaslin of Fen'Harel if he would have had one. They began treating me as a normal member of the clan when I started my keeper training, mostly because they knew I would be the one in charge of keeping the history of our people alive in the clan in the future. Even with their seeming approval, I was a wolf amongst a herd of halla.

One day, my clan came across a new ruin of our people on our travels. Me being in training to be a keeper was sent into the ruins to study and record what I had found there. I was sent in with a group of three hunters, incase we came across traps, animals, or demons. What we came across however was too great for the hunters to face. A large horde of darkspawn called the ruins their own. Far too many for the four of us to fight our way through. They swarmed us and the hunters fell quickly. I held on to the fight for as long as I could but my magic was draining quickly. Over the shoulder of a genlock I saw an opening, a small door that still appeared to be sturdy. Thinking quickly, I brought my magic to my palm and sent out a mass lightning spell, stunning the darkspawn around me. I was running to the door before the lightning had even touched their greyish green flesh. Throwing myself against the door I flew into the room within, slamming the door behind me and blocking it with a strong shield spell. Turning to look at the room I had just locked myself in, it appeared I was in a small shrine of sort. The walls were covered in ivy and a statue of Mythal stood in the middle of the small room, a small sphere like object sitting on the table in front of it, and an eluvian on the wall behind it. All together it was a very peaceful place to await rescue.

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After two days, I knew they were not coming. Odds are I had already been replaced by now. After they had celebrated my demise of course. I could still hear the darkspawn outside the door, I would have to find a way to escape on my own. The extra food reserves I had in my pack were nearly gone, whatever I chose to do, I would have to do it soon. While I stood planning my escape a small light flashed across the mirrored surface of the eluvian. I crept slowly to the eluvian, lightly touching its glass. Had I imagined it? Brushing it off as a trick of the light I turned away from the eluvian and walked toward the door once again. Then I felt it, a strange shift in the magic in the air. Turning around quickly, my long black hair flying out around me, I saw a strange man walk through the eluvian. The mirror moving in water circles around him. It appeared I surprised him as much as he surprised me. His sky-blue eyes grew wide at the sight of me.

Who was this strange man? He was an elf, but bore no vallaslin though he was more than old enough to, appearing to be in his mid-twenties. A city elf, maybe?