Secret swooper gift for 
jade_sabre_301
My Secret Swooper gift for
jade_sabre_301, who expressed a fondness for mages! So, a fanmix with a series of short fics for the Amell/Surana origin story. :D The fics are...well, not my strongest area, but the cover art kicks ass? Anypoodles, Happiest of Holidays, I hope it pleases. :D
1) Blackmore’s Night - “Ivory Tower”
He sits, shivering, in the tiny rowboat on Lake Calenhad, in a drizzle of cold rain. His teeth chatter, but he suspects it has more to do with the ice cold block of fear that’s settled in his stomach than it does with the chill in the air. The Templars that marched through the slums and plucked him from his frantic and sobbing mother’s arms have said very little to him the entire journey from Denerim; they call him ‘elf’ if they bother to refer to him at all. The tower looms, an ominous, shadowy fang against a mucky gray sky, beautiful and terrifying. He has traded the mud and weather-worn wooden prison of the alienage for one of marble and stone; prettier, but a cage is still a cage. He vows to the Maker, to Andraste, to whatever old gods still slumber that he will be free of it one day. He will take this curse and make it a gift. One way or another.
2) Loreena McKennitt - “Prologue”
She’s loved the tower from the moment she stepped through the heavy, ornate doors as a wide-eyed, awe-struck youth. She hears what some of the apprentices whisper about late at night, about how terribly they miss home, how much they hate those doors and despise the Templars hovering around them day and night, and while she sometimes stares across the lake and wonders what‘s happening out there in a world so much larger than anything she‘s ever known, to her, the tower is home.
3) Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi - “Memory of Lightwaves”
It takes time, but the resentment fades. Each day brings with it some new challenge to meet, a new obstacle to overcome. There are days he returns to his bed so exhausted that he wonders if he will close his eyes and lose himself in the Fade forever, and some of those days it even sounds like an appealing prospect, but he never forgets the vow he made as a terrified child in a leaky boat. Here, he is not ‘elf’ or ‘knife ears’. Here, he is ‘apprentice’, an equal, even ranked above some of the human kind that once sneered, spat at him, took from him whatever they wanted. Here, he is anything but helpless.
4) Vienna Teng - “Feather Moon”
She sits across from Duncan and stares into the campfire with such focus that when she looks up at the Warden Commander’s call, the streaks of flame still dance across her vision and blind her. She’s always been so sure of herself, so sure of what was right and what was wrong, but she sees Jowan’s face in the fire, and for the first time in her life she worries about the gray areas her mentors always warned her about, and wonders if betraying her friend under the orders of the Senior Enchanter was really the right path to take. Regret, she discovers, has a sharp and bitter taste, and settles hard and heavy on the heart.
5) Johnny Hollow - “People Are Strange”
He thought the title of Warden would earn him the respect he craved. He’s been hated for being an elf, feared and reviled for being a mage; the prejudices, he always thought, made him stronger. Walking the streets of Lothering, hearing the snatches of whispers and gossip and looking from one pale, terrified face to another, he realizes that the honor and glory, respect and camaraderie he thought he had finally achieved was just one more thing that fate saw fit to take away from him.
6) Everly - “The Girl in the Moon”
While she had never actively disliked the Templars, she never thought she would be standing beside one as a trusted companion and a friend. That Alistair seems to like her just as much surprises her, especially considering the constant snarling matches that erupt between him and Morrigan. She thinks for a long time that it is simply the difference that exists between a proud, defiant apostate and a proud, rule-abiding Circle mage. She thinks this, right up until the moment that he places a half-crushed, wild moss rose in the palm her hand, and tells her that she is extraordinary--just to see her smile again. She’s felt so far from home, so tired and so alone, but she realizes now that at least one of those things needn’t be so.
7) VAST - “Lady of Dreams”
Some things no amount of study can teach. Morrigan, it seems, has made it her personal mission to fill in all of those irritating little gaps in his knowledge, and he‘s surprised to discover what an eager study she makes of him. He didn’t think he would ever want a human, but in some ways, they are the same, and they are more…more than their race, more than even their craft and their talent. He spent his life honing his skills, seeking control, discipline and power; he never realized, never would have guessed at the power that passion holds.
8) Editors - “No Sound But the Wind”
She thought she was going home, she thought it would be a brief and pleasant respite from the death, the sorrow and the constant strife and conflict, but what she walks into is so much worse than all that came before, so much worse than any nightmare. A horrifying walk through the Fade, she would wake from eventually. People she passed in the corridors every day, faces she knows even if she can’t recall the name that goes with them stare up at her from the cold stone floor, scorched or blood-streaked or maybe just pale and empty. That’s bad enough; what’s worse is the cold realization that they’re the lucky ones.
9) Elysian Fields - “Black Acres”
He can’t pretend he doesn’t feel guilty when Alistair thanks him for saving the arl’s family, but the giddy rush of delight at the power that pulses through his veins with every heartbeat makes it easier to assuage. Anything it takes to win. He tells himself this over and over again even has he delights in the power he can feel running beneath his very skin. One child’s life--a child that will be a man again by the time the demon comes back for what he promised her--in exchange for power that could help turn the tide, quell a Blight, slay an archdemon and save an entire nation…it’s worth it. It has to be worth it.
10) Loreena McKennitt - “Dante’s Prayer”