A small three year old Dorian Pavus sat outside the healers room where his mother was giving birth to the newest to the Pavus bloodline. Dorian was nervous to meet his younger sibling as his parents made it perfectly clear that he was going to need to be a great big brother to them. After what felt like an eternity to the bored young child his father finally opened the door and turned to his son.

"Okay, Dorian come and meet your new baby sister" Dorian quickly jumped up out of his seat and ran inside. He saw his exhausted mother cradling a small baby girl in her arms.

"Dorian, meet Maria" His mother said tiredly. Dorian stared in awe at his baby sister, she stared back at him with dark brown eyes. Dorian noticed she was small even for a baby and already had a tuft of black hair growing. Dorian knew from that moment he would do whatever it took to protect his baby sister.

As Maria grew up she seemed to always be at her brother's side, they seemed to like spending a lot of time in the library reading any books they could get their hands on. When Maria turned five she began showing signs of magic. The first person to find this out was Dorian as Maria had run up to him, excitement on her face as she held her hand out and a small green glow appeared around her hand. When she showed her parents they had asked a friend of theirs Alexius to train both Dorian and Maria as they knew that he also had a son who was a mage.

Maria had recently turned seventeen and she had turned into a beautiful young lady, she was still pretty small, Dorian being a head taller than her. Her curly ink black hair reached her shoulder blades and she kept her fringe out of her eyes by placing it into a braid across the side of her head. On this day she had finished packing her bags as she prepared to go to meet another suitor her parents were forcing her to meet. Her brother had the same bad luck of their parents trying to set him up, but for her they were using more pressure. A knock on her door made her turn around to see Dorian standing at the entrance of her room.

"Hello my dear sister are you ready for your trip?" He said knowing full well Maria was dreading this trip.

"Don't remind me, it's gonna end the exact same way it always does, I return more annoyed than ever that mother and father think this man is right for me" This made Dorian laugh.

"Yes, they do seem to be the worst match-makers" This did make Maria smile slightly. She slung her satchel on her shoulder before giving her brother a tight hug.

"Just be careful out there, I am quite fond of having a little sister." With one final hug Maria gave her mother and father a hug goodbye before entering the carriage. The carriage had a few guards standing outside, who would be travelling with her for protection. After hours of driving, the carriage came to a sudden stop, looking outside the sun was not setting yet so they weren't stopping to rest for the night. This made Maria slightly anxious as she slowly reached for her staff in case. As her fingers brushed the wood of the staff a sword found itself against her neck.

"Not one more move, 'Vint" Maria froze before slowly raising her hands up and looked out to see a group of Tal-Vashoth. Her guards lay dead on the floor and the driver lay bleeding on the floor but still alive. "Come on get out!" The Tal-Vashoth moved his sword allowing her to get out of the carriage. She kept her hands up and tried taking deep breaths in an attempt not to panic but knowing her guards were now dead and her staff was in the carriage she would have to hope they decided to just take any valuables and leave. "So 'Vint, where are you from?"

"M-Minrathous" She stuttered. One of the Tal-Vasoth eyed her up and down.

"Doesn't look like a peasant, must be Altus. Which family are you from?"

"Pavus, my family is Pavus. My father's a magister"

"Ah, that explains the fancy carriage and guards. Well, you get us quite a bit of money then" Maria's eyes widen slightly in fear hearing this. One of the Tal-Vasoth aimed their weapon at Maria.

"Heal your driver, now" Maria heard the edge in his voice so she kneeled by the driver and started to use a healing spell closing the wound. When all the damage was done another of the Tal-Vashoth roughly grabbed her by her arms holding her tightly. "You go back to the family, tell them if they want their girl back they are going to send you back with 10,000 in gold. Oh and just to give them a little incentive, every day we are waiting for you to return it does get awful boring out here, we might just need a little entertainment" He said, eyeing Maria making her start to shake in fear. "Well, go on then run along!" The male Tal-Vasoth yelled to the driver as the man jumped on the last living horse and raced back in the direction of Minrathous. Maria shakily looked back to the Tal-Vasoth who must have been the leader as he walked up to her holding her chin roughly making her look at him. "You best hope your family wants you back quickly."

One week later, a small mercenary group travelled through the harsh sun, the group was called The Chargers. These were led by a Qunari called The Iron Bull but most people cut out the The in his name to save time. They were heading back to Minrathous to get the money from their last job but as night had begun to settle a small glow caught Bull's eye. Slowly leading the group to the direction of the light they soon saw a camp.

"Who is it chief? More Qunari?" Krem, Iron Bull's lieutenant asked.

"No, there Tal-Vashoth" He was about to lead his group away when something caught his eye. A small figure near the fire. As he looked closer he realised it was a young female, from what he could see she was hunched over but using his Ben-Hassrath training he could put together what had happened to her. The ripped outfit she was wearing mixed with her messed up hair spoke louder than any words could. Without speaking he took his axe out and began walking to the camp his group following behind him slightly confused but didn't question it. When the Tal-Vashoth saw the group walking towards them they stood up and grabbed their weapons.

"That's close enough, Qunari" The leader spoke up aiming his sword at Bull. "You best turn around and leave before this gets ugly"

"I'm not leaving without the girl." Bull said, glaring at the Tal-Vashoth.

"Why do you care, about what we do with the girl"

"Ransom against a rich family is one thing, what you've done is over the line" A fight ensued which led to the deaths of the Tal-Vashoth during the fight the girl remained where she was hiding her head from everything around her. Bull noticed that she still hadn't moved so he walked up to her and kneeled down. "Hey kid, don't worry you're safe now" The girl slowly lifted her head to look at Bull. She had a black eye and bust lip along with a few cuts across her face she was trembling in fear but she was able to speak.

"A-are they d-dead?" Her voice sounded horse, most likely from not drinking enough.

"Yes" she nodded her head in approval upon hearing this.

"Good."

"We've got a healer, he can look you over, miss...?"

"Pavus, Maria Pavus" He nodded he didn't really need to know upon seeing the crest on her outfit he knew the family house but the girl was already shaking he didn't need to seem like a stalker.

"Stitches, get over here" Stitches, a male human walked up to Maria and Bull. "Check her over," He then whispered so only Stitches could hear. "But be patient with her" With that said Stitches nodded slowly before turning to Maria. After a few minutes Stitches walked back to Bull who had been talking to Krem.

"We've got a problem, Ser." This made Bull instantly worried.

"What is it?"

"I've helped with all of the injuries she has but she's got a deep cut on her arm near her shoulder. It's infected pretty bad."

"So what do you reccomend?" Krem asked.

"Well this infection is too far for a simple potion or poultice," He sighed, not liking what he was about to say. "Her arms got to go." This made Bull and Krem look at him in shock. "That's not the worst of it"

"It gets worse?" Krem asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Well, seeing as I was meant to get more supplies when we arrived in Minrathous I only have a poultice or two, which isn't in any way what we need."

"Couldn't we knock her out and you do the rest?" Bull asked.

"If we knock her out then she'll have a higher chance of dying. She's gonna need to be awake during this." Bull nodded and walked back to Maria with Stitches and Krem.

"So kid, we've got some news for you" Once Maria had heard everything she was close to hyperventilating but as Dalish and Skinner sat next to her she calmed down slightly at their reassuring words. After a few moments Maria took a deep breath and nodded.

"Okay, let's get this over with." She then followed Stitches instructions and laid down as he pointed exactly where needed to be cut, her upper arm, leaving only a small stump. She tightly closed her eyes when an excruciating pain hit her arm making her scream out in pain. Grim held her down so she didn't injure herself more, but the action of holding her made her begin to push against the hold even more violently.

"Grim, let her go she'll hurt herself more if you're holding her down" Stitches ordered. Once the arm was correctly cut off Dalish used her 'bow' to stop the bleeding as Stitches looked in his pack for anything that could be used as a numbing agent, upon applying the numbing agent Maria's screams died down. Krem gently helped her sit and Stitches wrapped her arm up as she took several shaky breaths.

"Don't worry kid we're gonna get you home" In a fluid movement Bull gently picked up Maria and began walking in the direction of Minrathors, Maria began to argue at first but soon stopped as she began to drift off to sleep. The mercenary group travelled for hours until they saw the entrance of the city looking down to the sleeping form. He gently shook her awake making her stir awake. "Wake up kid, we're here" He gently placed her down and Krem helped keep her steady as they walked up the gate. As they arrived a guard stopped them from entering.

"Halt! State your business!"

"Easy, just returning something" Another guard notices Maria and rushes over to her.

"Madam Pavus!" He sees her pale face and gently guides into the walls of the city as four other guards surround the Chargers and lead them into the city, removing their weapons as Dalish says.

"Mind the bow" The Chargers give her a look but keep on walking following the guards where they are led further into the city. As they arrive at a large house they see Maria being fussed over by an older woman, who must have been her mother as a few other servants give her looks of worry.

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"Why haven't you sent the money across yet?!" Dorian yelled, slamming his hands on his father's desk.

"Dorian, I know you don't understand yet, but we have to be careful how we handle this. I promise you I am doing everything in my power to find your sister."

"You're doing everything but following their demands, which we received a week ago!"

"What's to stop them from taking the money and running off with your sister?" Suddenly the door into the Magister's study slammed open letting a guard run in.

"I'm sorry Magister Pavus, but it's Madam Pavus!" This made the two men look to the guard in shock. "She's back!" The two men then ran down the stairs of the house and exited the building where they saw a very weak looking Maria being fussed over by the servants. When Dorian saw his sister he pushed past his father and the servants and enveloped her in a hug which she tried to return, this is when Dorian realises she is only using one arm. He looks down and is horrified to see that his little sister now only has one arm.

"Vasta fass, Maria what happened?!" Dorian said holding her head in his hand gently as he saw her try to not cry. Maria and Dorian's father at this point noticed the Chargers.

"I assume you're not my daughter's captors?"

"No." Bull responded.

"So care to explain why you have her?"

"We kinda stumbled upon the Tal-Vashoth camp, her arm was infected too much to be saved, so we had to do some emergency surgery" Krem decided to answer sensing that his boss didn't want to speak to the Magister anymore then he had to. Maria's dad grimaced at hearing this.

"So tell me why I shouldn't have you executed for cutting off my daughters arm?"

"Father, they did it to save me" The Magister looked at his daughter as he shook his head slightly. He pulled out a bag of coins and threw them to Bull, who caught it.

"Leave and don't come back" With that the Magister turned to the servants. "Take my daughter to her room and call for a healer to check her over '' As he went back inside followed by his wife Dorian turned to the Chargers along with Maria as he gave them a genuine smile.

"Well, our father might not say it but I will. Thank you for saving my sister" Bull simply nodded before looking to Maria.

"Keep safe kid." She gave them a thankful smile as she was ushered inside by the servants and Dorian.