Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘We are utterly fucked aren't we.’

It hadn't taken long to figure it out. One did not just drop into a video game one day and not figure out where they were. The problem was the inevitable 'oh fuck' moment that followed.

Panicking never benefited anyone except the enemy and it took everything it could not to giggle inappropriately as the four "guards" stared at each other above the prisoners head.

The identical expressions of realization would have been comical if not for the fact that 'oh shit, they were guarding the Herald to be' in the same cut scene that opened the game.

One man just stared wide eyed.

'What do I do?' He mouthed over the prisoner's head trying not to lose the grip he had on his blade because he'd never get it back again.

'I don't know!'Came the equally silent reply.

They looked at each other and then at the near insensenate prisoner and nearly as one, sheathed their weapons. The nearest woman knelt down and gently took the prisoners face into her hands, tipping his head back far enough to see. A male face stared back in a daze, flinching as the mark sparked. The vallas'lin of Dirthamen was traced out in henna brown lines on pale skin and green eyes were glazed.

"Oh, Ir abelas, ma Falon." The 'guard' muttered, hands soothing away dust and tears on his cheeks. Never mind that a human should not know even that much elvhen. They quickly put him into a more comfortable position and went about briskly checking him over for other hurts.

While she did that another human had gone to the door, keeping watch from the grate as they took inventory of their resources.

"So we're in Haven, the chantry dungeons." The last member clarified. "Our current world state is at the beginning. No information is currently available to tell us if it's the bioware save or a custom state. Our Herald is a male dalish elf. Does anyone recognize him?"

The first woman heaved a sigh.

"Aye. He's one of mine."

The door guard snorted.

"With that much elvhen in your vocabulary I'd have pegged yours as a solvellan hell." She groaned.

"No. They stress me out. I was the distant or eldritch assistance type. If he plays like I imagine he will he'll be hard to shake." She was still nursing the prisoner in the crook of her neck and he'd settled, his eyes closed. She wasn't sure if he was sleeping or just faking it but he hadn't moved yet so she took that as a good enough sign as she stroked his hair.

"So if we're in here, how close are we to the start? I mean are we going to have seeker Cassandra in here breathing down our necks anytime soon?"

The remaining man took the prisoner's hand in his, careful not to touch the mark as he examined it.

"Mark isn't fully formed yet." He observed. "Hasn't screamed or flinched when it sparked. He'd not fully conscious, I'd say were pre-" he cut himself off and looked at the others. "We should treat them like a Taboo." He stated. The others nodded their agreement.

There was a clatter outside the cell and they quickly rearranged themselves back into their initial formation. The only difference was how the Herald was laying and that they'd sheathed their weapons though they all stood ready with hands on hilts.

A lock sounded in the door and it was opened. Cassandra came blustering in, ignoring them as a tall familiar form came in after her. The Seeker was in a stormy mood and every other word was a threat, the tall bald elf with her was taking it with remarkable aplomb even if he was anxiously searching out the mark. He'd strongly suggested being allowed to study the mark without an audience and one of the male guards cleared his throat loudly in disapproval.

"That's not possible." He half growled. "There will be two of us in here at any one time. It's as much for his protection as for yours." Cassandra at least approved of the order and he gestured to the creator before nodding to the other two. "Be back in two candlemarks."

They of course nodded. New bodies or not, they needed to get the lay of the land. Information was as important right then as gold.

They were all Modern People in Thedas, and they'd speedrun this shit.

—x—

Turns out their Isekai had done them a kindness and given them at least some combat skills to go with their new bodies.

They had their combat skills and diplomatic smarts tested by the end of the first night and their uniforms weren't just for show. Several people tried to infiltrate the dungeons that evening alone and it was their shared background that made spotting infiltrators easy. By Dawn they had the Herald locked down and the first murmurings of a plan hashed out.

Male number one was Simon. Simon played mostly Adaars and lingered in Camps Josephine and Cassandra. He wasn't previously a physical type, and hadn't had that particular body before the transition, but he was coping remarkably well.

The creator of the world state called herself Aura and wouldn't answer to anything else. She had a favorite, her Mahanon who she was clearly in love with but not in love with given her lack of romances.

The second man was Brian. He was an expat that had seen some combat and left the service behind him. He was fast to jump onto the defensive and had the best idea of all of them how to handle the military aspects. He had played almost exclusively humans and warriors, but he’d been a completionist and had taken every option available over many playthroughs.

Their last member was Tracy. She was their inheritor of solavelan hell. She had the encyclopedic knowledge of the Dread wolf and his plans, even if most of it was guesswork. Well educated guess work, but guess work none the less.

They watched over the Herald like Gargoyles, eyes turned outward at threats as the day passed with the mage picking away at the mark in frustration. As night fell the younger elf showed signs of waking and Solas (as they'd now officially been given his name) was retrieved and sent into the field.

Cassandra was working herself into a frothing rage in preparation and Aura leaned down over the prisoner, gently shaking the herald awake. They noticed when he woke, the elf going still in response to waking up in a strange place.

"Shhh, peace ma falon, don't open your eyes just yet." Aura crooned loud enough to hear but not so loud that they heard her outside.

"You are in the Dungeons of the Haven chantry. The conclave was interrupted and you were brought here after you were discovered the only survivor. We have been your protectors for the last two days from friend and foe alike. This will be confusing, but go along with the questioning for now if you can. We will ensure you come to no harm."

The noise picked up outside and the mark sparked. Aura managed to get back into position before he was fully upright and they stared impassively ahead as he settled on his knees. The board holding his hands wasn't great for comfort and the mark on his hand was sparking more frequently as he took a few seconds to look around.

Their attention was demanded however, when The Seeker slammed in with her signature line.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now?"

The four guards deliberately didn't look at each other or at the scene playing out.

None of them wanted attention from Leliana.

—x—

They got dragged up the mountain.

Almost as soon as Cassandra had taken the Prisoner out the door they were assigned to follow, to make their way to the forward camp. They lingered a short while to let the other characters go ahead and then followed, they caught up as the bridge fell, and realized that there weren't any weapons for the Prisoner to grab. Aura threw her bow down while their backs were turned and the Elf leapt on it, bringing it round lightning fast to execute the demon coming toward him.

Brian just whistled low, impressed.

They navigated hastily around the ruined bridge and skipped past the rift where an elf and a dwarf were fighting in the company of a few scouts. They’d struggled at first with the fighting, especially since their only bow had given hers away, but she'd scavenged another off a body when using daggers had been too close for comfort. Brian had a sword and board, Simon flailed a longsword and Tracy had a mace. They sorely lacked a mage, but they hadn't been blessed with that sort of power and doubtless they wouldn't have been trusted with a prisoner if they were.

Tracy had been quite disappointed.

Still, fighting through demons had them reaching the forward camp just moments before the Prisoner and his group did. They were certainly all very experienced combatants. "There's my disney princess." Aura mumbled as they opened the gates in the wake of the closing rift. Her voice made the elf whip around sharply to look for them with big bright green eyes but they'd blended in with the others there to reinforce the front.

The main party went to the mountain path at the Prisoner's prompting and their group was bundled into the distraction until Simon had pointed out that they'd have a three day wait with a vulnerable Herald afterward. Then they'd switched to the team going with Leliana straight to the breach.

The temple was a devastating sight. Broken walls and burnt husks, it was a monument to one man's hubris and at that moment it was driven home for most of them how badly the misguided plan to unlock the orb had gone.

They managed to hold onto their lunch though and followed the scouts in, spreading out strategically around the perimeter. None of them wanted to fight a Pride demon but they'd at least be ready to grab him when he fell. The fight went about as well as expected and at the end when the Prisoner reached up to seal the rift they moved. Streaming out if the background they flowed back into formation around him. Aura caught him before he could hit the ground, cradling the elf's slight form to her chest and cooing all the while.

They'd moved fast enough that the other members of the to be inquisition hadn't had the chance to do more than stare.

It didn't last long though as the Herald started to seize.

"We need to get him back down the mountain!" Aura said loudly as she quickly arranged him into a recovery position and backed off two fingers carefully on his throat as she waited it out. That made the others move though. Solas rushed forward to assist and they reluctantly let him. Still, they cobbled together a stretcher and had him back down in the village in record time. The healer recruiting the all to enthusiastic guards to assist. The ones that didn't fit in the cabin stood watch outside, except instead of fending off enemies they were fending off well wishers.

—x—

Three days passed slowly.

Eventually they moved the Herald to his cabin. They were assigned a smaller one just next door. It seems their service had been noted by someone and they'd decided that they'd be the new 'Herald's' personal guard. He'd certainly needed it.

They waited out the time till he woke up and it was Brian on duty at the door when the fateful cutscene played, he walked in on the elf girl kowtowing and sighed loudly.

"Girl, stop." The elf froze. "Take a deep breath." He instructed and she did it automatically until she was calm.

"Now, take your message to Lady Cassandra, but don't run, don't detour and don't go shouting it to anyone else alright." She nodded frantically before catching herself and nodding once, this time more sure. "Good girl." The guard praised before sending her rather more gently than anticipated on her way. He was gruff, yes, but he hadn't been unkind. He shut the door behind her and moved into the room, standing opposite the bed and careful not to block the path to the door. Their charge wasn't a prisoner anymore.

"Not sure what you remember, but today you are in Haven, in a cabin set aside for your continued use. It's been three days since the attempt to close the breach. You have stabilized it, but in theory if there’s more power it can be closed. I and the other three that were with you in the dungeon are your personal guard. You are no longer considered a prisoner, but unless you want a whole lot of well meaning people knocking on the door at all hours we're here to stay. That's the basics though. Anything significant I've missed?" The herald shook his head and that’s when he thought of it. "Oh, shit, can't believe I forgot. What's your name? No one could tell me."

The Herald didn't seem too surprised by that.

"You're the first person to ask." He said finally standing from the bed. "I am Mahanon. Mahanon Lavellan." Inside Brian was laughing. Thank god his maker was into defaults.

—x—

So they ended up surreptitiously following the man around.

Brian's quick thinking had spared him the walk of shame to the chantry for the most part, but that didn't mean the well wishers didn't just drop things to say hello or stare.

After he was in the war room with Cassandra they dispersed the crowd and held their own pow wow in a quiet corner of the chantry where they could see the doors.

They had no doubt that others had been assigned to watch. Leliana especially wouldn't just leave him be. But they decided to give Mahanon as much space as he wanted. One of them would be nearby in shifts. Six hours each. Morning, afternoon, evening and overnight. At least while they were in town. Aura, the utter den mother that she'd turned out to be, cooked meals and got first shift, she relieved the night watch. She'd actually been a security guard in her previous life and was surprisingly good at sneaking up on people. Occasionally she'd target random scouts just to see them jump.

She'd followed him into the war room on at least one occasion and not been called out until she'd spoken under her breath and Mahanon had whipped around faster than one could blink. The others had been amused by that. It seemed he recalled at least something from his imprisonment and he was hyper aware of her after that.

Tracy had afternoons. She'd been reluctant to give up on sleep given that she'd been attempting to reach the fade, even though she wasn't a mage. She'd been determined to prove she could and hadn't taken no for an answer. Thus she would rather gracelessly follow from a few feet back, just like she'd been taught. She however, followed companions like the Herald followed Aura. She had to be reminded not the leer at Voldemort for fear she'd wind up in the booty trap. Though it seemed her act was repelling him without much effort on her part (and much to her disappointment).

Brian took the evenings. Neither of the girls wanted to go near the tavern. Even though they were all human and soldiers to boot. Whenever the Herald went he'd just find a wall to hold up and wait it out. Occasionally he'd play bouncer when it suited him. His eyes on the wider scene to prevent more trouble before it started.

Simon was happy to be the night watch. Things rarely happened after dark and he'd sit with a lantern and a book, learning while he listened for sounds. That more than anything implied that he hadn't been as mobile as he was now. He'd certainly enjoyed the little things about this place more than any of the other three.

The strangest part of their week before leaving for the Hinterlands had been when they'd started training. Rather than just wait while Mahanon was in with the advisors, they'd taken to heading around the side of the chantry to train. They needed to learn the skills their bodies remembered and then some and while they'd done that the meeting had ended early. One would expect that someone under guard would immediately run off to do things when their watchers slipped. But Mahanon had got several strides away before turning to look for them.

He'd wondered over and refused to move until they were finished.

They had become such a big part of his life here that without at least one of them nearby he hadn't felt nearly as at ease. Simon had questioned it, wondering why a Dalish hunter of all people would feel safer with a bunch of humans. Mahanon hadn't had an answer he wanted to share, so they'd ended up dropping the topic and inviting him to join them.

—x—

Their trip out to the Hinterlands, at least the first time, was in the company of dozens of scouts and soldiers that would all be deploying from the main camp. There was a war being fought there and they'd be needed to secure the crossroads.

Turns out Aura hated camping. Brian was used to it, Simon was enjoying the novelty, Tracy just used it as an opportunity to catch people half dressed to oogle. She was making headway with her dreaming though and was starting to remember more and more of her own.

Out here they were met with their own trial by fire, so to speak. It was the first time they'd seen open combat here. Sure Brian had been military, but he was used to guns, not swords. Simon and Tracy had made their first kills in the melee to free the village, while Aura...

Aura had requisitioned another bow after losing her first.

It was a massive thing, a long bow with stiff sections through the center that were as solid as a quarter staff in close combat but when she used it to fire...

They were treated to the sight of a fleeing Templar going down well beyond the reach of any conventional bow. The arrow she'd used had been reinforced just enough to punch through armor and she never even left the camp's lookout.

Well... she had said her support style was distant and eldrich. She was certainly being scary from a long way away right now. When they'd ask her if she'd killed before all she'd said was. "I am a child of the brotherhood. I have long been desensitized to the Rekt." The soldiers that overheard began to speculate and wonder about her origins. The other three just rolled their eyes when they parsed it to mean videogames and 4chan.

"A giant nerd you mean." Tracy accused, happy to draw attention away from her own little breakdown. Aura just sat taller where she was maintaining her bow and stuck her nose in the air haughtily.

"All souls return to our Dread Father in time. It's just a matter of when."

"Dread? Like the Dread Wolf?" Varric, who had been nearby, asked. Aura snorted.

"No!" She protested. "I follow the God of the Void! Sithis, the Dread Father and his Bride, the Night Mother. And when I die I will stand with him in death along with my brothers and sisters. But until then I will continue to make my offerings to him with skill and care."

That unnerved a lot of those listening, Brian snorted. "Stab happy weirdo." He grumbled good naturedly. "Figures you're crazy. You're a cultist in the middle of a chantry organization." She shrugged and finished wrapping her bow.

"Kill with purpose. There are no sanctuaries in these parts. There is no shame in lending my blade to a worthy cause." That comment seemed to signal the end of the discussion, however, now she was getting odd looks from Cassandra and Solas while Varric had moved in to question her. Brian just sighed and rolled his eyes. She was being 'interesting' again. Then again, it wasn't like they had backstories here. And it explained the sneaking at least.

Interestingly enough Mahanon hadn't backed away from her. He'd been seated next to her for the entire conversation, still maintaining his own bow, something the other three remembered had been hers to start with.

'Won't spook easy' indeed.

—x—

Completionist Brian was pleased with Mahanon when he went about finishing off everything he could before they were due to return to Haven. For the most part the Herald didn't need them in the field and none of them minded. The companions were a force all their own. Their squad went the other way, doing the less intensive jobs, securing campsites, gathering resources and scouting issues and locations to point out to the main group later. Of course, they'd confirmed what they already knew about just in case, but they were usually on the money when it came to stuff from the game.

After their third bear kill Aura had wondered if Bears could be domesticated as mounts and if so, how could they go about it. Tracy had piped up about the Avvar holdbeasts and that had lead into a discussion over whether or not they would need to summon a spirit to flesh or bind it to the bear and if it was the spirit's body would it actually even be considered a bear in the first place. The argument went on for so long that it drew in the Apostate when they returned to camp and most of what everyone else got out of it was "can we ride bears?".

The answer was a no from almost everyone. The mage looked pensive and everyone else decided to keep Aura away from bear dens, lest she figure out how to take a cub to train.

—x—

The honor guard, as they were now being called among the other inquisition forces was dressed up pretty and sent off to Val Royeaux. The companion squad was with them of course, Mahanon didn't leave Haven without them nearby. But in a wider city they agreed that the honor guard was far from out of place. Certainly they were far more comfortable in the urban setting.

When the group went to see the mothers Aura and Simon were tagging along. Brian and Tracy were left to watch their lodgings. The Assassin and the quiet man were a good pick for staying unnoticed. Simon watching from outside the crowd and Aura standing patiently in Mahanon's shadow. Almost literally, she had her back to his, watching Simon for signals of intent and keeping an eye out for trouble behind them from where she was tucked against the herald's spine. She was doing the trick where people didn't notice her till she spoke. And so far no one had even looked at the inquisition guard with the enormous wrapped package on her back.

She had to clear her throat at a few people in the crowd who noticed her abruptly and scarpered off, but they made it out of the scenario in one piece. Interestingly enough, Mahanon had called out to Barris. Encouraging the still sane Templars to leave.

It had been an interesting morning.

Still, their time in the summer bazaar wasn't over, she only had to point out Belle to get an agent and Mahanon was interested enough to follow Sera's clues without prompting. Simon intercepted Madame Vivienne's invitation and vetted it before allowing it to pass. Other invitations were collected to be passed to Josephine. They'd underestimated how much interest the Herald had generated before he'd become inquisitor.

They ended up having to coordinate with the scouts to arrange correspondence and when everyone else retired for the evening, after they'd recruited Sera, Aura had stayed out till nearly dawn.

It was two days after they'd left the city for the Ghislain Estate that news reached them of two chevaliers and a minor noble being found dead in their beds in locked rooms the day after the incident in the bazaar. Last anyone else knew, the House of Repose was being blamed.

Three pairs of eyes just turned to stare at Aura who deliberately did not react to the obvious accusations.

They returned to Haven with a mage, a Jenny and Tracy found an elf child that needed a home. How she'd found the urchin and convinced him to come with her they'd never know but now she had a little shadow of her own.

Brian had just thrown up his hands and said he wasn't babysitting because she was feeling clucky. She just continued to dote on the boy. That made Sera visibly uncomfortable until one day she found Aura of all people sat behind the stables with him teaching him little bits of Elvhen and telling him stories of elves she had known or known of.

Which of course lead to her accusing the morning guard of being elf blooded because of how much she knew. Which lead to even more speculation about her origins.

Brian gave up and just let her do what she wanted.

Still, when the Herald left once more they followed. Up to the storm coast where they scouted the wilds ahead. There were many good vantage points for a sniper and they took advantage of that. Brian designating targets and their ranged member picking them off. They did their usual gathering and marking and when they returned to camp they were introduced to the chargers.

The quartet immediately zeroed in on Bull warily. People noticed and money changed hands.

"Damn, they called it right away."

Turns out their uncanny instinct for people and information had been brought to the companions attention. They'd made bets on whether or not they would pick up on the fact that The Iron Bull was a spy. Turned out it was something of a sucker bet, because any mgit knew not to completely trust Bull with sensitive information before he'd been declared Tal'vashoth.

Trust him in combat, trust him to do the job, but anything he didn't know couldn't be passed on to Par Vollen.

They decided to hotbunk in Mahanon's tent that night just to drive the point home.

—x—

Back in the Hinterlands they were due to accept Fiona's invitation. She'd found them before they'd left Orlais and extended the Mage's interest. Mahanon hadn't really had time to stop and find Blackwall, so Tracy and Simon had taken the opportunity to handle that issue. They'd volunteered to meet up with them at the main camp once they were done in Redcliffe so they could investigate. By now people more than trusted them to know what to do. So they left them to it.

The rest continued on to the Arling's seat and discovered that no one remembered them.

Well Shit.

They ventured into the town to wary stares and news that the mages were being indentured to Tevinter. It wasn't in their best interest at all. Brian stayed at the Herald's shoulder this time and Aura ventured into the town, quickly and quietly gathering information and codex entries for later, she ended up in the chantry with another familiar face and spent the rest of the hour mopping up demons and making a new friend.

Brian caught Felix by the door and took the message while the younger vint played sick and broke up the meeting before it could get far. That’s how they followed the notes and were utterly unsurprised to find their missing assassin already there.

Mahanon just closed the rift and Aura dropped to the floor, taking the chance to rest with dramatic zeal. Brian found a splintered piece of a pew and started poking her while the others talked above them, but when Mahanon gave the order to wrap up their business and leave she bounced back to her feet.

In the meantime the others had found Blackwall.

They'd found him by the lake and invited him to join the inquisition. They hadn't revealed that they knew who he was, but they did drop hints. Along with a bit of an "ahh yes." Moment over his name.

They'd agreed to arrange for the inquisition to find out, or at least the Herald. But they'd also developed a cover story. Blackwall was a codename that protected him until he could properly be inducted into the wardens. Given the nature of his crimes before and the accusations against him it served no one to reveal him.

Still, they were waiting in camp when the rest of the group rolled in.

—x—

Mahanon wasn't sure what to think about his personal guard.

They appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be a group of ordinary humans who had been given charge to watch over him.

But in his memory...

"Does anyone recognize him?"

"Aye, he's one of mine."

He remembered a woman holding him, in the daze that was the first night in the Dungeon. His ear pressed to her throat, he could hear her every breath and heartbeat clear as day. She'd held him, crooning an elvhen lullaby under her breath until he'd fallen asleep.

When he'd been woken for Cassandra's interrogation he'd registered her elvhen and In spite of everything that screamed at him to argue and fight back he'd trusted them. They'd been impassive and stone faced the entire time, but something inside him, trusted them.

“He doesn't have a weapon."

"He can have my bow."

He had sworn there was nothing there when they'd fallen from the bridge and out of nowhere he'd heard the voices again. The next second he'd turned around and there it was, a bow and arrows scattered on the wreckage like it had fallen with them. He'd grabbed it up and it was the fastest he'd ever moved. It had more power than he was anticipating and the arrow cut right through the demon shade, sending it back to the fade with more efficiency than expected.

Further up the path he'd found another elf and a dwarf. Solas and Varric had been by the rift for a while and were glad when the mark on his hand closed it. The elf was almost giddy and even though he was up to his neck in sarcasm, the dwarf was too.

They'd talked as they'd moved and encountered another rift. There was a vaguely familiar group of soldiers already fighting amid the others and he turned fast once the rift was closed to look for them.

"Looking for something there brighteyes?" Varric asked.

"There's my ****** princ***."

His head whipped around looking for the voice. But there was only human soldiers and he didn't recognize any of them.

"No." He finally answered Varric. "They're not here anyway."

But that was a lie. He could feel eyes on his back once more.

He didn't get the chance to look again though. The argument with Roderick took up everyone's attention and he couldn't live with himself if he didn't at least look for the scouts on the mountain path. No one had followed them up either so they were on their own until they reached the temple.

The breach rose above him, terrifying in its enormity. He hadn't been looking forward to this anymore than the next person but he was thrown into the battle with the pride demon. He didn't register it at the time but arrows took out anything that attempted to sneak up on him and in the middle of the battle he'd prayed for a way to end it faster...

"-it shields. Disrupt the rift..."

He disrupted the rift without even stopping to think and the demon had stumbled, vulnerable. They landed the final blow and he'd raised his hand, connecting to the breach and it felt like it was trying to unteather his soul from his body until the connection abruptly cut and he registered his legs going from beneath him, but he never hit the ground.

Familiar arms caught him, wrapping him in warmth.

"It's okay, my friend. We have you, we have you, be at peace."

He didn't remember anything else after that.

But while he dreamt, he processed thought. The images and conclusions gathered in his mind.

"Does anyone recognize him?"

"Aye, he's one of mine."

By the time he woke he knew.

These people weren't people. They were spirits or gods, as displaced as he was and they'd made it their task to help and protect him. He wasn't the chosen of Andraste. He didn't believe in the humans Maker. But he did believe he was chosen by the woman who walked in her body like it didn't quite fit. Whose voice was the one he heard when he was stuck and prayed for an answer.

His morning guard just smiled at him sunnily every morning and faded into the background, and though he couldn't see her he knew she was there.

So when one of his guards had asked why he didn't just wonder off without them, he hadn't spoken. But the answer was that in a town of people who worshiped him, he found peace in the people he believed in instead.

—x—

They were forced into an odd waiting game.

After their trip to Redcliffe they returned to Haven and when they weren't tagging along behind Mahanon the guard were busy. They estimated a week, maybe two, before the breach was to be sealed. They were currently waiting for the invitation to Redcliffe. The Herald had chosen to help the mages. He'd hemmed and hawwed the details on the morning after he'd been given the choice. The Guards had patiently gone through the information and laid it all out for him to make the decision. He'd also sent a letter to the templars. Warning the few sane ones of the dangers of red lyrium and telling them to cut it and run if they had to.

Until the Magister gave them an opening though they mostly lingered in Haven. The Guard had started to stockpile discreetly. Aura vanished into the night to move supplies while Simon had learned potion making and stockpiled his own.

They couldn't be there while Corypheus was confronting the Herald, but they could make the way more comfortable. They set up a hunting blind on the mountain above the tree line as well. The Assassins overkill longbow could take potshots at the dragon from far enough away that they'd never find the culprit.

Tracy had volunteered to scout ahead while the way was still clear to mark the herald's path. She'd found the cave and used chalk and charcoal to emphasize the way, leaving a few supplies that wouldn't be eaten by the wildlife. She taught her little elven tag along at the same time.

Brian had been practicing his fighting alongside the soldiers to polish his abilities. Needing to be able to fight now more than ever. In the face of a potential war he'd fallen back on old habits and lingered near the officers when given the chance.

When the missive from Redcliffe finally came only two of them went with the Herald. If they didn't return then the other two would evacuate Haven, assuming the worst had come to pass and they were in the bad timeline. They'd lead the survivors to Skyhold and if possible, send reinforcements when the time came for the Herald to reappear.

So Simon and Tracy stayed. Aura and Brian went with the others.

—x—

The heralds party usually said a lot about them during that mission.

Most people brought along their romantic interests in order to see them in the future. Mahanon hadn't shown any particular leanings as of yet and didn't mind only taking two companions while Dorian came in from below. Blackwall had been an interesting choice, but it opened up a few opportunities. And Sera was the other one. A whole new team... interesting...

Aura of course was to enter with Leliana and the agents and Brian was a footnote behind Mahanon, almost entirely overlooked by the Tevinters as a threat.

Everything went about as well as they expected it too. Meaning it all went to shit as soon as they walked in the door. Mahanon confronted Alexius, the scouts killed the guards and Aura shouted something right before the startled Dorian interfered with the time spell sending them to the future...

And then the king walked in and the Guards went into Emergency Stations.

—x—

In the year that never happened many things started moving fast.

Aura had vanished into the woodwork. Brian had saved the king at the cost of his men and they'd escaped. Blackwall and Sera had been captured and the mages subdued.

Brian lead those that could leave back to haven and met the few surviving templars on the way, they'd heard the Herald's plea and responded. Brian had thrown caution to the wind and told them what was going on. The future was lost but there was still a chance to stop all this. A year and a day to prepare, to train, before they would take the fight to Redcliffe.

They reached Haven ahead of the army and it was evacuated. Brian stood in for the Herald and buried Haven. He made his way to the refugees and inadvertently played the role of the inquisitor. There was no singing, but it didn't matter, it wasn't going to be their world for long.

Tracy abused her foreknowledge and lead the way to Skyhold.

Solas of course was suspicious but she was as determined to end this future as anyone else.

Simon was the one who sat in the War room coordinating their efforts, foresight and information, collating the data into The Book. The Book was a compendium, a codex of everything that happened to them, the mission record, the guide that they would entrust to the Herald.

Aura hadn't been seen since the day the Herald fell, but they knew she was alive. She had doubled down on her backstory. The Dark Brotherhood had never existed as an entity outside of the elderscrolls, but she had made it real. Black handprints began showing up when a follower of the Elder one turned up dead and she was the blade to their shield as more and more people flooded to Skyhold for protection.

Tracy had a breakthrough with her dreaming.

She started to gather dreamers. Sominari she warned away from the Dread Wolf to help them. They faced the nightmare when the army swept across the face of Thedas. They'd tried to get into the winter ball, but without Mahanon's magic hand they'd lacked the political ‘ommff’ required. Tracy died taking down the nightmare, driving it deep into the fade where it couldn't return.

They were pushed back to Skyhold when the days grew closer to the time the Herald would return. The Breach grew, new rifts opened and it was dire in Farelden and Orlais. Many had fled to the north where they could pretend the world wasn't ending and with a week to go the remaining inquisition forces gathered their weapons and remaining supplies and set out for Redcliffe.

The year had not been kind on them. Their Templar allies had held on through sheer determination and spite as they transported The Book. It was passed with great Gravitas from Simon to Brian who had ridden out with the army. They'd approached Redcliffe and waited and just as soon as they'd settled into camps to wait Aura had melted out of the dark. She was thin, gaunt even. She had fashioned the Dark Brotherhood armor and dyed it blue instead of red. Her hair hung limp and greasy in a braid she itched constantly. An eyepatch covered one eye and she wore her oversized bow, its surface scratched in knotches and prayers. She flicked a dagger constantly in the way of someone who had learned to sleep well after killing but didn't quite trust anyone while she was awake.

She'd stolen his soap and cleaned herself up before crawling into Brians tent stealing his bunk and slept the sleep of the unrepentant.

When she woke he handed her The Book.

She looked it over and didn't speak a word, her persona fully in place as she secured the bundle and vanished into the woods.

At Dawn they laid siege the Castle and welcomed their final day.

—x—

When they landed it was in a pool of stagnant knee high water.

Disoriented they'd fended off the Venatori and gone about figuring out where they were... or rather when.

What they ended up finding was a whole lot of corpses.

A trail of bodies leading in a line toward a dungeon cell.

"She said you'd come." Enchanter Fiona stared back at them from the grip of the red lyrium.

"Who is she?" Dorian was fast to question, but Mahanon heard the voice in the dark.

“There you are, my Herald. "

His ears visibly flicked and Fiona just looked on knowingly. She'd heard it too.

"The Dark Sister. She'd been haunting these dungeons. She's been awaiting your arrival. I hear the guards talk when she kills them." She told them the date and as they went to leave she looked him in the eye. "May the Dread Father guide you." She blessed solemnly. They moved up the stairs, Dorian visibly unnerved when they heard her address someone and the sound of a blade in flesh.

Mahanon suddenly wanted to turn back but he didn't. Couldn't. But he felt comforted by the eyes he felt on his back. They found Sera, then Blackwall and the Warden had his own confession to make.

"She told me now would be a good time for confessions." He admits as they make their way toward the upper keep. "Secrets you'll need to know. My name isn't really Blackwall. The real Warden Constable Blackwall died in a Darkspawn attack. I was originally to be drafted but we never performed the joining. I had no proof that I wasn't responsible for his death, so I took his name and tried to do right by him. My name is actually Thom Rainer."

That had been enlightening and answered a few questions. After so long cooped up Blackwall, Rainer, had decided to put it in his hands.

"Tell them, out me, or kill me if you must. I understand. I've been on borrowed time."

They'd navigated the castle and found Leliana.

Leliana wasn't any better than the others, her skin was extensively scared and she was a living revenant of spite and rage. She spat when Dorian had the thought to ask about the 'Dark Sister' that Fiona had been talking about. She didn't elaborate but she certainly didn't seem pleased with them.

It wasn't until they were scouring siderooms that he heard it and stopped.

"We tried our best to spare you the heartache.”

He turned.

His maker slid from the shadows like a ghost. Coming just short of touching him as she searched his face and smiled. It seemed out of place on such a gaunt figure but it was unmistakably his morning guard. He suppressed the abrupt urge to grab her, like she’d slip through his fingers like her words often did. She just continued to smile at him.

"You're a clever one. Just as I hoped you'd be." She murmured. "You closed your eyes and listened, even when you couldn't tell if you were up or down." There was a visible struggle in her expression as she made herself step back, reaching into her backpack as she pulled it over her shoulder.

"Here. This is our codex. An almanac. The record of our existence. Though we know this future will ultimately not come to pass, it was an opportunity we decided not to pass up. We lived these years. We fought the war that exploded in the wake of your departure. While the same won't come to pass in your timeline we lived this hell. And for you to have this book. The Book. Means our suffering wasn't for nothing."

He accepted the tome, feeling the weight of its journey in the pages.

"Some secrets aren't in there." She cautioned. "But it does give you something just as good. Sometimes you have to ask the right questions."

"And what are the right questions?" He asked.

Her smile turned smug.

"Exactly." He stashed the book but in the time he'd looked away his guard was gone. Sera called out for him to follow and he hurried to catch up to the others, but he was still comforted by the eyes. He felt them right up until they reached the throne room. It was rather more heartbreaking to watch his friends dying for him, but he never once saw the Guards body. In fact the sounds of pitched battle sounded outside. A force was drawing the Elder one's attention, giving them more precious seconds to perform the spell to take them back.

The green swirl of a time portal tugged them back into the throne room of a year ago with Alexius, his companions and his guards all standing ready to move.

"You'll have to try harder than that Alexius." Dorian was sneering, confident. Alexius just folded, giving into his son's inevitable death. He offered the mage's alliance and by the time they finished the confrontation with the king he was clutching his bag, exhausted.

His Guards just sidled up close behind him and he let himself lean on them. The morning guard just gave him a smile, full of sad understanding. The evening guard looked much the same. Of course they knew. They always knew.

When they reached the camp one came into his tent with him and the other stood watch outside. He fell asleep to the assassin crooning lullabies, holding the book of the future.

He did not dream.

—x—

Their return was both triumphant and not.

He cracked open the book under the eyes of his guard and found their initial warning on the first page. An army would come for them soon. The Elder one at the helm.

It lit a fire under the Herald that had them racing for Haven.

The last sane Templars where on the road and they found them, just where Brian reported finding them before. They bore the news of their fallen order and while the mages following him were clearly uncertain about the presence of Templars, none of them had time to argue.

Simon and Tracy were glad to see them. They'd been ready to just go when the raven carrying news of their success arrived, resetting the timer. Mahanon showed his advisors the book. They were just as stunned by the sheer effort to document the future. Simon's table of Contents had broken it up into sections, titled based on the major event that had occurred around it.

Of course, given the nod to bioware he'd named the fall of Haven 'In Your Heart Shall Burn.'

It was also the first instance where there were questions.

"Who knows the way down the Summer Pilgrimage Path?"

And

"How does one survive an Avalanche to the face?"

They quickly found the pilgrim. Chancellor Roderick was cajoled into revealing the way and he lead the first wave of evacuees to the fallback that the Guard had supplied. The rest were to sleep or prepare. They'd close the Breach tomorrow at first light and wait for the forces that were to come under the cover of darkness.

Mahanon nearly didn't sleep. He tossed and turned and then got up again. He walked out of his cabin to find the quietest of his guard sitting next to the door, reading by lantern light.

"How does one survive an Avalanche to the face?" He asked, not really expecting an answer. But the soldier took one look at him and tucked his book away. He'd stood, lantern in hand and moved down the path from the cabin and Mahanon moved after him.

It was a straight shot past Seggrit's usual setup area to the place their fourth trebuchet was set up. Simon turned a circle, orienting himself before walking to one side and reaching out to knock on a slope.

It rang hollow.

He brushed some of the snow away and it was suddenly blatantly obvious.

The mines.

Cassandra had said they were honeycombed all over the mountain range. Haven had been a mining town before the cult had moved in and it made sense to have a shaft near the town for no better reason than accessibility.

Simon was smiling at him as he realized this. It was the same kind of smile that all the guards wore. They knew. They knew.

“You're a clever one. Just as I hoped you'd be.”

They'd always known.

He stopped the near panic with a breath and remembered who his guards were. They were lost gods. Actively meddling in his life yes, but they'd sworn to his well being. They'd done everything in their power to warn him of what was coming. They gave him to tools to follow this path with eyes open and head high. They gave him their assistance because they wanted him to live to the end. Not that they didn't want his enemy dead. But it was a sentiment that had come to carry weight.

He returned to his cabin with that thought and found his morning guard slouched in a chair by his fireplace. She unfolded herself from it as he entered and he could see the elements of the woman she would become. Of course, right now she wasn't half starved. She was bright faced and kindly in spite of the killer that lay within and he hoped she never had to become the Dark Sister in this timeline. Her prints had been all over the books pages.

While the others had gone along the inquisitions path she had done it alone. She'd ferreted out secrets and once she'd gotten her hands on The Book she'd stuck her own reports between the pages.

She'd birthed the Brotherhood she'd spoken of on their first trip to the Hinterlands and used it to gather information that the others couldn't, killing target upon target all across Thedas for the better part of a year before returning to Redcliffe to find him.

Her last entry had been a sheet of parchment with a black handprint and the words.

"We know."

He understood the double meaning now.

So when she lead him back to his bed and tucked him in like a child he asked her about the Dark Brotherhood and she smiled.

"It was a family. A home."

And he fell asleep dreaming of murderous brothers and sisters he'd never meet or see living in underground sanctuaries and going on their adventures to assassinate the people others prayed to their gods to kill.

—x—

The morning dawned both hopeful and dreaded.

Mahanon had slept through the rest of the night with his dreams of Assassins and had woken oddly refreshed. In spite of the late night wonderings his morning guard was stationed outside the door, her smile the first thing he saw before she tucked it away and fell into step just at the edge of his vision. The mages were gathered and with the Templars prepping for the attack they ventured up the mountain.

The feeling of the breach closing slammed out in a wave of energy that could be felt for miles.

Once they'd picked themselves up they'd stopped to recover somewhat and set off back down the mountain. About half way there the afternoon guard met them and the woman with the giant bow grinned before scampering off into the trees.

The mages muttered to each other at her actions before they were ushered into Haven. Mahanon didn't know where she was going but she had her bow and knew better than anyone what lay ahead.

When dark started to fall the others left. Anyone who hadn't volunteered to stay behind and cover the flank was ushered out toward their fallback position. The evening guard was on his heels as the bells started to ring. And outside the gate was a boy in a big hat who came to warn them.

"He's not happy you took his mages." He points to the distant ridge that overlooks the valley.

After that it's fire.

Fire, lyrium and blood.

When the dragon comes they fall back to the chantry and the boy is there again.

"How do you survive an avalanche to the face?" He asks and Mahanon knows why they didn't put it into the book.

"We have to bury Haven."

His companions protest.

"He doesn't want anyone else. He just wants you." The boy goes on, driving the point home.

Mahanon turns to Cullen.

"Get some volunteers to turn the last trebuchet." His companions leap at the chance to come with him and he allows it only so far as it takes to get the war machine turned. When the Dragon goes roaring overhead he tells them to run and not look back.

His evening guard hesitates.

He knows what's coming. The man had stood in his shoes in the other timeline and survived.

"You should go." He tells him and the human stops and claps him roughly on the shoulder.

"Simon will meet you on the other side." He says voice thick. "Aura is on the mountain. She'll cover your back." As if on cue, a reinforced bolt hits the ground nearby and they both nearly jump out of their skin. The guard just shakes his head. "Good luck, sir." He squeezes his shoulder one last time and turns, dashing for the chantry.

It turns out the doors close just in time as the dragon makes itself known. The lyrium tainted false archdemon lands and nearly bowls him over as its owner stalks out of the fire. It’s all he can do to keep him busy monologing as he waits for the signal. When the magister reveals the orb that crackles red and tries to remove his mark an Arrow comes screaming out of the dark, knocking him lose. The magister is on guard immediately, trying to find the archer as the elf scrambles toward the trebuchet.

Another arrow falls, once again aiming for the orb but he tucks it away.

Then the signal goes up over the darkspawn's shoulder and it's time. The monologue is interrupted when Mahanon just spits out the first thing that comes to his mind and uses an abandoned sword to cut the rope. Corypheus turns to watch the stone as it flies above their heads but Mahanon is already running. He can hear the beat of wings in flight even as he plunges through the opening to the mineshaft and careens into the darkness.

Above him, snow roars and Haven is made silent.

—x—

The night guard was waiting for him.

When he dragged himself off the bottom of the mineshaft and went looking along the line of charcoal arrows he found the human facing off against a number of demons. His mark lurched at the sight of them and even without his shout of warning the man was already leaping out of the way. He stabbed his great sword into the ground and used it to ride out the howling gale as the Demons where sucked into the hole Mahanon had just punched in the veil.

When it stopped the guard, Simon, pulled the blade free and hooked it into its harness with no further reaction to the act.

"So how prepared were you for all this?" He asks and is relieved when the human gave him a smirk that was more a twist of his lips and gestures to the wall behind him. A large chest was set against the stone and when it’s pulled open Mahanon discovers winter gear, rations and medical supplies. With a whistle he goes to grab a potion and finally takes a better look at his arm.

"Here, let me." The human helped him put the dislocated limb back into place and the pain lessened almost immediately. With a potion and a few travel rations shoved down his throat as fast as he could chew he felt immensely improved. Simon helped him into the winter coat more common amid the avvar and they set out right away.

They had no reason to linger there.

The pass outside the tunnel was filled with howling wind and blinding snow. It cut through the layers of their clothing with brutal efficiency and Mahanon swore he'd never be warm again.

Still they forged on.

The desolate scenery appeared and disappeared into the storm as they passed. Trees and rocky outcrops would appear from nothing in front of them and they'd have to path around. The Night Guard forged ahead, his larger form cutting a way through the snow that the slight elf was grateful for.

Wolves howled in the distance and at some point in the trek His Morning Guard joined them. One moment he'd been looking at a wall of snow and between one blink and the next she'd been there, wading through the snow alongside and eventually behind. He might have called out or said something in response to her abrupt appearance but the storm stole the words before she could hear them.

And on they went until the storm started to ease and the grey light of dawn started to touch the horizon. The snow sat innocently on the mountain like it hadn't been blowing against them for most of the night and in the sudden stillness he could feel the exhaustion in his bones. He drifted closer to the others as a corona of light that had nothing to do with the sun or stars peaked off the icy stones and he almost went to his knees as the fires and tents of their fallback position became visible, nestled in a crevice that had sheltered it through the storm.

Or maybe his knees had given way after all.

Arms grabbed him as his vision was sapped away and shouting started in the distance but they'd found them, they'd reached their people alive.

—x—

The four sat in their shelter opposite the one where the Herald rested, watching the camp with lazy eyes as the advisors argued amongst themselves.

"So that's one milestone reached." There were soft noises of agreement with Brian's words. Simon had The Book in his lap, having lifted it from the Advisors while they weren't looking.

"I can't believe you actually started the Dark Brotherhood." He scoffed at Aura, waving the 'we know' page at her. "You really are the biggest nerd of all of us aren't you?" She responded with a shit eating grin from where she was reclined on her bedroll using a dagger to pick at her nails.

"You didn't think I was serious about the Sithis thing. I would have taken it as a personal challenge, although, just be glad it wasn't Chthulu." Simon rolled his eyes and tucked the paper away before flipping to another part of the book.

"You left a message for yourself here Tracy." He continued and handed it off to the woman in question. It was in some sort of code but the fangirl lit up when she read it. She didn't share though and handed the book back. Her adoptee was sprawled in her lap, oblivious to their conversations while she patched clothing over his head.

"So our next port is Voldemort's lair." Aura piped up, rolling up onto her side. "Do you think it'll be like cannon?" The others all stopped to think about that.

"Well there's sure to be more to it than we've seen. I mean it fit an entire Army in there at one point." Brian offered, breaking a few sticks and throwing them into the Brazier that warmed their tent.

"Dibs on hanging out in the Library." Tracy muttered. The others groaned at her. Even though the apostate hadn't so much as looked her way the woman wasn't one to give up on her dreams easily.

"Why do you have such a big lady boner for him anyway?" Simon asked, "I mean I get the unique character model and the voice but seriously? There's bonehead and then there’s dangerous bonehead and guess which one Voldemort has?" Tracy threw the shirt she'd been repairing at his head.

"I don't have to explain anything to you! You wouldn't get it anyway!" She hissed and the other human just laughed.

A few people looked their way at that. Their cavalier attitudes were at odds with the mood of the rest of the camp as the Advisors finally wound down and split up to wallow. They did feel somewhat sorry for them. Their lives had just been upended and their world crushed beneath a mountain of snow.

"Hey." Brian hissed, sitting up straighter. "It's starting."

They all perked up and put aside what they were doing to watch as Mahanon stumbled out of the tent, leaning against the pole. But before he could address the others Mother Giselle's voice rang out into the night.

"Ohh, that gives me tingles." Tracy muttered and the others hushed her to watch.

“Shadows fall and hope has fled..."

"Steel your heart, the dawn will come..."

They really did all sing. Their voices weren't as cinematic as the game had made it out to be, but they all sang. Leliana was a high warble of emotion and Cullen must have been a choir boy back in the chantry, but they hummed or sang the tune. Tracy happily joined in for the fun of it but the others kept to themselves, Aura looking physically pained like it made her uncomfortable to listen.

("I'm allergic to religious bullshit." She muttered after the fact, shuddering.)

It ended in a rather more messy mix of voices, but near on all of the villagers looked better than they had in days. There were also more people than the cutscene ever showed. With their interference they'd ensured that their losses had been minimal. Civilians and the mages had been evacuated long before the attacking force even came close to the valley and their volunteers had fared better than expected with a plan in place.

Chief among the changes had been Roderick. The chancellor had survived, even playing his part in the evacuation and was now looking at the Herald with new eyes.

"Face bruised and broken, he leaps in front of a templar to save the woman. Blade cutzs deep, he knows the way, and wonders if he survived so he could show them... you changed it."

The four of them startle, nearly going for weapons before they register the hat.

"Jeezus christ, make noise next time Cole!" The jumpy assassin in their midst hisses out loudly.

"But I did. I spoke."

Aura just falls flat on her back with a Cassandra-esque noise that makes the rest snigger in amusement.

"You changed the Templars too." The spirit of Compassion states. "You didn't have too but you helped the Herald reach out." Brian hummed their agreement.

"Of course. Just because one was chosen over the other doesn't make the others less of people. Even if they didn't join us it was only right to extend a hand anyway." Cole did a wiggle that must have meant approval and Tracy gave into the urge to give him headpats.

"Good cinnamon bun." He echoed her thought. "But I'm not food?"

Simon snorted and Cole zeroed in on him.

"You're afraid you can't go back to how it was." He says, reciting the thoughts they're all having. "It was too detailed. How much do the questions reveal? Will they realize who they need to ask?" His eyes are on The Book, and honestly, so are theirs.

He's right. It gave away many of the secrets they're aware of and to have it fall into an enemy or a spies hands would be devastating, still they'd deemed it necessary to hand it over to the Herald and inevitably the advisors. It had so much information and in being so thorough in their documentation of the future they'd implicated their true talents and foreknowledge.

Although right now they were still as a collective unimpressed with how they treated said information if it could be lifted out from under them.

"I'll help." Cole says, hearing their desire. "I can make everyone else forget about it except the ones who need it. Even him. His name isn't like you-know-who you know. He won't hear it if you say it out loud."

Simon patted him on the shoulder.

"No, but others might." He explains. "And if we never say the name then the others will never know for sure who we're talking about."

"Oh."

They all lapse into silence as they watch the subject of that particular conversation walk away from the fires. None of them move to interrupt, they know the conversation he's going to have with the Herald by heart without even seeing it and at some point Cole slips away again. There are less people to help this time, but soldiers still were hurt or died at Haven, people are still cold and others are having nightmares. There's still plenty of work for the spirit to do.

About fifteen minutes later the two elves return to the camp and rather than return to his tent or visit the Advisors the Herald stops before them. They stare back and there's no mistaking his expression as he notices The Book. It's the look of 'how did that get there' combined with 'of course you have it'.

The Night Guard just hands it over with a grin.

"We'll be setting out to the north tomorrow." He says, eyeing them.

"Tarasyl'an Te'las." Aura and Tracy say at the same time.

"I am Lavellan's utter lack of surprise." Brian quotes under his breath in response making them all snicker. The elf clearly doesn't understand, but he doesn't ask. Instead he takes The Book and continues on his way without another word. There's another brief conversation among the leadership before he's back, this time with his bedroll in tow.

"Not that we mind, but why here?" They ask and the elf gives them a deadpan look, none of those initial wide eyed expressions he'd given them while he was finding his feet to be seen.

"You won't stare at me." He tells them and he's not wrong. Not that they don't watch him anyway as he settles down in their midst. He's come a long way since that first moment in the dungeon and like it or not the fall of Haven had changed him. As Voldemort had said not an hour before.
Corypheus had changed him.

The potential Inquisitor had always been there though, lurking under the surface, but now...

Now he was finally ready.

—x—

The only upside to their Northward march is that at least it's not snowing.

The ground is white with a thick carpet of the stuff that they melt as they go. Their remaining beasts of burden are laden with the camping supplies and those who can ride are piled on the horses that Dennet had mustered near the first camp.

Mahanon is in an oddly good mood when they set out that morning and it hadn't faded. The Honor Guard are stepping away from their original purpose as they go. Whereas he was an elf with the magic hand to start with, he'd been seen as the vulnerable point of the inquisition. Having human guards was as much a statement as having an elven Herald. But he certainly didn't need them in combat and with the way the people of the inquisition had come to see him as more than just the Herald he certainly didn't need them to run interference anymore.

They might have to be more vigilant against the nobles though, but their fears had come to fruition over the book. Just as Cole spoke of them.

They HAD given too much away.

And now the Advisors were sniffing around.

In that terrible future Simon had compiled The Book, Brian had been inquisitor, Tracy had defeated the Nightmare and Aura had murdered her way around Southern Thedas... it had drawn some attention. But while they each had individual strengths and weaknesses they worked better together.

That didn't mean they weren't hunted down alone though.

Cullen had awkwardly sidled up to Brian in the worst attempt to act casual they'd ever seen. He'd read about their military actions and the Last Stand and had been curious about them. Modern practices had scared the face of Thedas when the Alternative was to simply watch it burn. Many of the details had been left out if the final version of The Book but they'd still put in the question.

"What would happen in a battle where everyone had Gaatlok?"

That had implied many things. The most damning of them being the possibility that they knew how to make it. If the Qun found out they'd be screwed. Cullen, as commander of their forces had been more than a little curious though. He'd also broached the topic of whether or not he'd be the inquisitor again and Brian had laughed. Laughed so hard that Cullen had nearly made excuses to leave and the expat had told him, deathly serious.

"It's not my feet on the path now."

The commander had left it then, unwilling to continue down that line of questioning.

Josephine had even less excuses to interact with them legitimately, but had questions of her own. She had noted Simon's ability to compile and organize information. He was an accomplished scribe if nothing else and had assisted her in that other future. She'd asked him what he'd been before he'd joined the Inquisition forces that he had such skills.

He'd looked at the others wide eyed over the ambassadors head. Out of all of them only Aura had bothered to craft a back story of any sort and their lack of foresight in that department was coming back to haunt them now. Whereas before they'd just been the Herald's guards, faceless uniformed redshirts among the many, but now they were considered "interesting". The grown man spluttered, hemmed and hawed in response.

Aura took pity on him.

"What he doesn't want to admit is that he was a sickly child." Josephine turned toward her, an eyebrow raised. "Oh yes, virtually the runt of the litter. His father was ever so disappointed that he didn't have another body for the farm. His mother however loved him, she lamented not having any girls around." Simon was blushing red at the implications and ducked down to grab a lump of snow to throw at her.

"Shut up shitlord!" He cursed at her, forgetting for a moment that Josephine was there. The Morning Guard just hurried forward along the crowd of walking refugees, cackling all the way until Simon turned back to Josephine sheepishly and apologized for his language.

"I was sickly though." He admitted. "And I wrote to keep myself busy. It was about the only thing I could do some days. This," he waved to himself. "came much later." Josephine's expression had softened and she'd smiled understandingly. By the time she wrapped up the conversation and left though, Simon had been blushing up a storm.

They'd ribbed him about it afterward, asking if he'd be the first one to need help out of the booty trap. He'd proceeded to start a snowball fight that ended with more than one of them shaking snow out of the back of their armor.

No one was quite sure what to make about Tracy's contribution. She'd taught herself how to Dream. She wasn't a mage and she had no magic. She was essentially invisible to most demons, but she went out of her way to learn how to walk and manipulate the fade while she was asleep. Her questioning didn't come at the hands of the inquisition leaders; it had come from a spirit in her dreams.

The first any of the others knew about it was when she woke, grinning like a fool on the fourth day of their march.

"I met a spirit!" She announced as they were pulling up stakes. She'd been found by an old spirit of curiosity. It had felt her in the fade from far far away. It had been traveling toward them for a while before they'd started north and met them on the road... so to speak. It figured though. The fangirl's curiosity absolutely burned even when she was awake. It had agreed to teach her, more for its own curiosity than any real agenda.

"And no, it won't turn into a bear. I already asked it." She preempted the assassin's next question causing her to pout.

But after all the others had been tracked down by their various interrogators it left just two.

Leliana and Aura circled each other like hunters looking for a weakness.

It wasn't overt. People generally didn't notice them maneuvering. Leliana was an old hand who would time her appearances carefully. In the corner of your eye here, or behind someone else there. Aura on the other hand made herself scarce. Breaking line of sight and vanishing for hours on end only to cough behind someone and startle them out of their britches. She caught Leliana that way exactly once before she had to find a new method.

Their odd dance went on for the rest of the journey to Skyhold and whatever reckoning the spymaster had planned was put on hold as cries went up ahead of them. They'd topped the peak ahead of them and took in the sight of Tarasyl'an Te'las for the first time in this timeline.

It was a glorious ruin.

The walls were standing and the roof had holes but the drawbridge was down and no one was protecting it.

And after a week or more trudging through the snow at a snail’s pace it was the most beautiful a sight they'd ever see.

Everyone was in a much better mood as they crossed the causeway into the lower courtyard and fanned out. Tracy stepped under the portcullis and stopped, taking a deep breath of mountain air and announcing to the others, a grin on her face.

"Checkpoint reached."

They grinned back and dove into the mass of life beyond the gate.

—x—

For about a month nothing got done.

Skyhold had needed any number of repairs and they'd needed to establish supply lines before they could set out into the world again. Everyone was busy and the Honor Guard weren't spared. Ravens had to be trained, rubble had to be cleared, roofs had to be repaired. Thankfully their supplies lasted the week it took for their people to make it up the mountain. They'd had to unbury the road from the snow, but once it was clear they made much faster progress.

When the Barracks were unearthed and cleared they were grateful to get out of their tent.

Eventually though they spied the Advisors slowly converging on the courtyard with Cassandra leading the Herald from the guardhouse to the upper level and they situated themselves to one side where they had a good view.

The brand spanking new Inquisitor clearly felt silly holding the blade and from the indignant look he'd clearly brought up the fact he was an elf, but he raised it and promised to do his best for everyone. The mood was festive as the leadership moved higher into the main hall and Brian elbowed the nearest body that turned out to be Tracy.

"Guys, if our boy is Inquisitor then you know who's here?" They all froze as they noted Varric carefully avoiding Cassandra as he snuck up the main stairs.

"I call dibs on watching the Ramparts." Tracy almost vibrated with excitement as she darted up the stairs and away.

"Someone's going to have to distract Cass." Brian continued and then stopped. "I'm going to have to distract Cass." He concluded and turned to find that the other two had already vanished into the wood work. With a sigh he went to find the Seeker.

Better to head off her temper now rather than see her go off the handle later.

—x—

Chapter Text

By the time Mahanon reached the ramparts with Varric three of his guards were hidden (deliberately badly) around the area where Hawke lingered, trying not to be seen. He caught the eye of his afternoon guard and she grinned back at him with something nearing delight and all but vibrated with eagerness.

It struck him then that if he'd had meddling gods in his life then possibly others had existed as well. Hawke had been elevated to the status of Champion of Kirkwall, thanks to Varric his exploits were known all over and with all he'd survived, what's to say he didn't have his own guiding hands.

It was a thought that stayed with him even as Varric made introductions.

"I don't know how much help I'll be. You dropped a mountain on him." Hawke tells him, but he already knows what to ask.

"What happened to the grey wardens when you encountered him the first time?"

The Champion looks at him sharply with that question. When he'd cracked open the book that morning it had been neatly jotted out under the header of "first things first" and it figured that they knew about Hawke too.

"- he controlled them to lure us there." Garret Hawke finally answered. "And... now that you remind me... the warden that was with us when he died was... acting... strange..."

Over the Human Mage's shoulder he could see the night guard and the look on his face was that of 'this is important. IMPORTANT.' Hawke must have seen something in his expression because he whipped around and Simon ducked behind a crate. The champion stares at the crate, eyes narrowed like its offended him before he reluctantly turns his back on it.

Mahanon has to try very hard not to smile.

Standing Between them Varric, who is aware of the ever present guards, just shakes his head.

—x—

The Book was not the ultimate oracle of the future. In fact it was already fast approaching a point where it was no longer necessary in terms of actual future events. Of course the two most important prompts were "how does one kill a nightmare" and "how do you get invited to a ball?" But the rest of it, if parsed correctly, could still be of great use in various ways.

More specifically, the Assassins pages.

Cassandra had requested they go after a few notable Templars and Mages all of whom had names on one list they'd discovered early on. Varric had requested help finding someone in kirkwall and there was a entry closer to the end of the year called 'the hack writer' with an identity that saved the searching agents.

A letter and an agent end up being dispatched to Denerim to catch a spy that's working the kitchens there for the Venatori.

One entry was from the Wycome area and had a letter from his clan. It was from one of the younger hunters, and contained an impassioned plea to avenge the clan after they'd all but been wiped out by the nobles of the city.

'Red lyrium in the wells.'

Was scratched out below the letter in different handwriting and another inquisition report confirming that the nobility had been wiped out in turn, even the ones who fled. Pages with the black hand had been found on the bodies as clear and deliberate threats. Furthermore the hunter who'd sent the letter hadn't been seen in the town since the murders and the Inquisitor of the time had speculated that he'd gone with the Brotherhood.

Given that he'd already received word from Keeper Deshanna about Clan Lavellan, Mahanon had paid much closer attention to the situation than he might of otherwise.

He gets the terrible feeling that he might not ever get to see them again, but he'd do his best to make sure they were at least alive... somewhere.

—x—

When he finally gets to leave Skyhold with Varric, Bull and Vivienne, the Inquisitor feels oddly bereft. He's had to leave the honor guard behind.

The guards themselves don't do much better and throw themselves into their work, but it's not like there isn't a million things to do. Although their first order of business is traveling deep into the guts of the keep. The undercroft is empty late in the day and the rushing of the waterfall covers the sounds of hammering and talking alike.

It was there, sitting in silence they realized that they didn't know what to do next.

They'd reached the first milestone of the inquisition. They'd made it to skyhold and left the pertinent information in the right hands. The Inquisitor didn't technically need them anymore and their position as the Honor Guard had become more ceremonial than practical...

"I miss my Inquisitor." Aura complained, draped over the railing that separates them from falling into the valley bellow. The others made varying noises of amusement or mockery. Simon had another book in his lap, carefully shielded from the waterfalls spray.

"You could always go and start the Brotherhood again." He suggested and the woman made a face.

"Nah." She disagrees. "We don't need to get information out of them anymore. I wrote it all down. There's no fun in killing them twice." Never mind that she had no memory of doing so in the first place and had no clue where to begin even if she did. She could mostly speculate the steps she'd have taken to reach that goal, but as of that moment there was no pressing need either. The Inquisitor was still alive and whatever she did would just be linked back to him.

That and spies were a whole different ballgame compared to killers. Killers just stabbed people. Spies you actually had to communicate with and manage.

Vengeance fueled murder sprees were far more simple.

The other three guards just watched as she muttered to herself, plotting and planning in her own little world before they proceeded to ignore her.

"So next in the timeline?" Tracy prompted and Brian straightened.

"Halamshiral, or Adamant." On this trip Mahanon was to go to the Fallow Mire before swinging back up to Crestwood to meet with the Warden that was friends with Hawke. The reminder made them snicker. They'd followed the Champion around for the better part of his visit. He'd been careful not to be seen but he'd been glaring at their hiding places for most of it. They hadn't been subtle. Like at all. Varric had eventually called them out but rather than be introduced they scattered. How did you talk to a legend without fangirling? None of them could honestly answer that one. So they'd left him alone.

Well... for a given measure of alone.

"I wanna go to the fade!" Tracy declared at about the same time as Aura said "I wanna go to the Ball!"

The two women looked at each other before bursting out in giggles. Simon looked up from his book, eyebrow raised.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked Tracy. The afternoon guard absentmindedly traced shapes on the stone beside her.

"Well... I was thinking of the nightmare." She began hesitantly. "And then I remembered something..." she pulled out a sheet of parchment absolutely covered in scribbles that looked oddly like a flowchart. "Choices have consequences. They're not just a plot device in the game to make you feel bad. There'd usually something behind them that'll come back to bite you later... or..."

"Help." Brian finished the sentence as realization sank in. They were all looking at her now as she traced a line down her flowchart.

"We know how this ends." She says, oddly grim, and they know she's thinking about one particular person. They'd all been keeping half an eye on Voldemort and now that there’s no longer a screen between them they can sense that something is not right with the ancient elf. "And I read a story once that implied that someone could survive in the fade. What if whoever is left behind is actually a Deus Ex for later?"

It was pure speculation how this would go, but she did have a point. In a game of choices, there were no wrong choices, they all affected the outcome. And sometimes the ones they made might seem terrible. But later they could also become an ace in the hole.

"Do we save them?" Tracy struggled to say the words, knowing very well that if she was wrong someone would still be consigned to the fade. "Or do we prepare the way instead?"

It was a heavy question that lingered over their heads like a dark cloud.

"If that's what you were thinking about I'm almost afraid to ask what you wanted to do at the ball." Brian swung his focus from Tracy to Aura and the assassin, now draped so far over the banister that she was looking at them between the stone pillars that held it up, just gave them a Cheshire grin.

"Oh, well, I just wanted to see if I could get the Inquisitor to dance with me after I'd murder hobo'd my way around the Palace in a Pretty Dress."

It was a near thing, but they managed to resist the urge to push her the rest of the way off the side of the castle.

—x—

They end up in Crestwood.

Sick of staying in Skyhold avoiding the Advisors they beg Scout Harding to take them out to the main camp. It's miserable and they regret it almost immediately but they are exceptionally pleased with themselves when the Inquisitor all but lights up upon sighting them. The other members of the inner circle are bemused by the distinct change in demeanor.

"You're just here to annoy Hawke." Varric accuses them.

Their grins don't disabuse him of that notion, but it's not their sole reason for appearing. There are a number of questions in The Book that refer to this area and an arrest they'll need to make if only to save time. Even so, they grab the extra supplies they'd packed and follow the Inquisitor to the village.

Of course on the way they run right into a pair of Grey Wardens. They're looking for the same people they are and the Guard watch them leave in stony silence. They continue along the coastline of the lake and there are undead all over the place. Mahanon and his squad are used to them, dispatching them with brutal efficiency.

"Euuggh, draugur!" Aura is cursing as she smashes one particularly soggy zombie hard enough to splatter grey matter. "Eeeewwww..." her cohorts would have been laughing at her if they weren't as disgusted. There's less to deal with, trailing in the main party's wake, but they're not spared from the restless dead.

"Do you think anyone would mind if I just..." she began.

"No."

There was a ragged sigh and the rest of the trek was spent in relative silence.

—x—

There are a lot more scary things in Crestwood than they realize. The further they get from the water the easier it is to move without coming face to face with water logged zombies but they're not out of the woods yet.

Well, so to speak.

There's an altar for a dragon where the villagers have been keeping it subdued with sacrifices and the mines are infested with Red Templars to the north of the zone.

"This place is cursed." Simon quotes in an impersonation of a lisping henchman as they sit under a tarp watching the bandit fortress. Their Inquisitor had wanted to find Hawke first, wading off into the distance toward the smugglers cave. They were left with the scouts to scope out what resistance they'd find within. Their report is already scratched out in the dirt, including the vague floor plan based on the game variant and what they can see from over the walls.

"You know I could just..."

"No!"

It had already been decided, they were waiting for the Inquisitor. He was the one in charge, they'd wait for him. Brian was all for it, the whole concept of a military organization was familiar and to his mind, comforting. He was fast becoming the solid voice of reason among them. Solid, knowing and rational, it had made him popular with the other soldiers and in spite of all thoughts otherwise he'd been seen talking to Cullen.

Aura chewed her nails and shrank back into the shelter.

Between them their cohorts looked at each other, concerned.

Their friends of circumstance were like water and oil. Brian preferring order, every move and every act carefully calculated and considered before he executed the objective. Counter to him, Aura was virtually chaos incarnate. She was easily described as Hot and Cold and Hold My Beer While I Prove This Asshole Wrong. It was like she'd listen to the conversation and then do the exact opposite of what everyone thought or wanted and one day she was going to take a challenge she couldn't win and she'd likely just burn down the entire castle rather than admit it.

Their differences were causing much tension between them and it was only their singular goal of reaching the end of the game alive that was keeping them from going at each other’s throats.

Tracy just made a mark in the journal she'd been keeping and went back to the watch.

The Inquisitor and his party arrived a few hours later.

They shuffled into their leanto, shedding damp cloaks as they noted the map on the ground.

"What do we have?" The Inquisitor was all business as he crouched down to look.

Brian stepped up.

"Nothing we weren't expecting." he began. "The gate isn't solid. It's been rotted out by the rain. They are somewhat aware of our presence. They haven't seen us, but they're eyeing any of our people passing toward the village." numbers were calculated and they memorized the floor plan before Mahanon made the call to take them on as soon as possible.

The plan was to go through the front gate and move from area to area clearing it before the guards came up behind them and swept for anything they missed. The bones of a plan in place Vivienne froze the wood of the door and in a spectacular show of strength Bull brought it down. The fighting was fast and chaotic. Bandits went tumbling from the roof of the stables and when it was clear at a glance the main party moved on.

—x—

So naturally it once again descended into chaos.

Tracy was proven right in her earlier musings when Aura took the first opportunity to vanish into the shadows. She was, after all, an Assassin...

Brian didn't seem to comprehend that. In fact it was fast becoming clear why Aura was taking initiative. They'd read The Book, Brian had played Inquisitor. It was one thing to make the tactical decisions when you were just playing along with something you'd seen before.

But while Brian himself had been a soldier, he was nowhere near good at commanding. There were fundamental differences between modern war strategies and medieval ones. Not to mention in a fight, having the inner circle as backup made it that much easier. They were all super competent and compared to them, they were just kids playing with knives.

But Brian hadn't realized yet. While he'd done those things in the other timeline..., right now he had no goddamn clue.

"What were you doing?!" The Soldier demanded in a loud whisper as he found the corner the Assassin had been hiding in once the fort had been secured. "Running off like that you could have gotten us all killed." She glared up at him.

"You didn't need to follow me. In fact, you shouldn't have." Brian made a Cassandra style noise in the back of his throat.

"We were supposed to stick together and secure the area behind the Inquisitor so they didn't get flanked. Running off to kill people isn't doing that." The assassin scoffed.

"Ha, no. That's exactly what I'm supposed to do." She glared back. "My skill set isn't made for open warfare. Standing out in the open is suicide! Duck and cover meat head." He should know this. He was a soldier, he should remember.

With a snarl he'd gone back to his job, snarling when they came across the stray corpse of someone stabbed from behind. When the Inquisitor took out the enemy and raised the inquisition flag on the main tower the rest of the surviving bandits had fled,only to be crushed against the reinforcements that had scrambled from the camp nearby to watch the door.

Brian had sought out the Assassin and they'd argued, done in hissed whispers so the inner circle or the scouts wouldn't hear them.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong with me."

"I was squad leader, you need to stay with us."

"Uugh, really? Are you really? This isn't modern warfare and you're not my Inquisitor."

"Your Inquisitor? Hah. You're in the booty trap aren't you, this is why you're doing this."

Aura actually snarled at that.

"I am not! I - ughh!" She threw up her arms and gave an inarticulate scream of rage before stomping off into the depths of the fortress. A few people looked up as she passed but otherwise no one reacted.

Brian stomped off in the other direction, and behind the both Tracy and Simon looked at each other.

Tracy put another mark on her book, crossing out a line of marks before getting to her feet and quietly going looking for the wayward Assassin.

—x—

She found the other woman seated on the top of the largest tower, staring up at the stars. Her monster bow was sat on the flagstones beside her, unstrung. To Tracy she just looked tired as she came up the ladder from below, barely acknowledging her as she flopped gracelessly to the ground nearby.

"I do you know."

Tracy looked over at her fellow guard, already kinda guessing what she was about to say.

"Do what?" She prompted anyway.

"Love him." The Assassin planted her face in her arms, red ears the only part visible to give away her feelings at admitting it. "I mean, you get it. I poured my heart and soul into him. That's the point of it after all. You step into their shoes, you live their lives through their eyes and you craft the people they're destined to be."

Tracy looked down at her hands and nodded.

Although she wasn't in an elf body she'd spent hours playing one in order to be close to the target of her affections. She'd learned to be an Elf through the eyes of an elf and honestly in the end it wasn't Ellena Lavellan on the screen, it was herself. A woman who was in the wrong place at the right time who fell in love with a man destined to die for an ideal that was centuries out of date and it had ruled her life since. From what she'd said when this topic had first come up, the Assassin hadn't taken the romance options, she preferred her own company, content being alone, and maybe that was true, but never once had she not gone out of her way to help the Inquisitor on his path.

Aura heaved a sigh and let herself fall back, uncurling so she could stare at the starry sky without straining her neck.

"Fuck Bioware, amirite?"

She'd said it so casually that it took a moment to sink in and when it did the Dreamer let out a startled burst of laughter. The giggles continued and suddenly they were both venting weeks of stress and anxiety to the night sky. Eventually though it trailed off and they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

It extended up until they heard shuffling bellow and Tracy looked over to the ladder in time to see the Dark red of the Inquisitor's hair pop up from the hatch.

"Well, looks like that's my cue to leave." She rolled to her feet, still marveling at how easy it was to move her body as she dusted off her uniform. "Don't stay up too late now." She called over her shoulder as she nodded to the elf and took to the ladder. Her last view of them as she started down was of the Inquisitor dropping to sit in the spot she'd been in a moment before and she grinned to herself as she hit the landing.

"I ship it." She admitted and snickered to herself as she went to find the others.

—x—

Simon hadn't always been in this body.

He was steadfastly ignoring the fuming soldier on the other side of the tent as he took a bite of the bread they'd been passing out with dinner. His movements were very deliberate as he savored the taste and wondered what he'd done to deserve this.

The others couldn't know how close to the truth his fictional backstory had been. He could tell that the Assassin had been joking, mostly, but he hadn't just been sickly, he... no. She, had been dying. She'd lost the genetic lottery and while it hadn't been evident while she was younger but as she'd grown more and more things had piled up. It had started with food allergies that set in late, followed by weakness in her body, concluding in the revelation that because her mother had been doused with old crop dusting chemicals as a child she had passed on a much higher chance of developing cancer.

She'd been all but waiting to die.

And then He'd woken up in Thedas.

Nothing hurt.

He didn't feel the lingering Nausea.

He could eat proper food again.

It had felt so natural to be in this new body and he'd gladly welcomed every day since, different body or not. He'd chosen his name on a whim, saying the first thing that had popped into his head and remembering that the last thing he'd been reading before he'd slipped away had been about Firefly.

If anyone had bothered to ask he'd have gladly told them his last name was Tam just to see if the others knew it, but no one did. Still, it felt a little strange to be considered one of the boys. As such he wound up paired with the other male in their quartet more often than not and in this instance was expected to play therapist. Although to be honest he'd spent more time hmm'ing and nodding at appropriate intervals while the man ranted.

"She'll get someone killed if she keeps going off on her own. She's a soldier for gods sake."

"Is she though?" Simon pointed out mildly, "We may inhabit the bodies of soldiers, but before we came here I think you were the only one that served." The man seemed to wind down at that. He stopped fidgeting and stared at the canvas in a daze as he mulled it over in his head. Simon just continued eating.

"She'd not fazed by killing though. She started an order of Assassins. And her Archery. How much of that was her and how much was the skills we inherited. She didn't even blink the first time we killed."

That... was an uncomfortable thought. She fit in this world almost disturbingly well when you really thought about it. What modern human found it so easy to take a life?

The night guard recalled their first fight up the mountain. Demons were shaped like monsters, there was very little impression of humanity when you looked at them. Killing them had been easy compared to the fighters at the crossroads. He'd been sick in a bush after he realized what he'd done. But the morning guard had shot down the enemy combatants with cold certainty and waded into the field afterward to retrieve her arrows without so much as a by your leave. But she had said it though hadn't she. She'd been desensitized.

"The internet is a scary place." He concluded in a murmur, the shadow of old nausea crossing his mind.

He set down his food and wrapped it back up again.

The tent flap was pulled aside and Tracy ducked in.

"So is she...?" Simon spoke up and Tracy grinned back.

"She's up on the ramparts." She bounced into her bedroll. "With the Inquisitor."

She wiggled her eyebrows.

Brian's shot up and Simon whistled.

"What."

It was less a question and more a deadpan statement.

Tracy shed her armor and wiggled under the covers, still half giggling to herself.

"You know for someone who gave me so much shit for my Romance options she sure moved in quick." Brian groaned, covering his eyes in exasperation, not in the least bit happy with the development, but not so grossly incandescent about it anymore either.

"I'm starting to think that something must have happened in that future." He muttered sourly.

Tracy scrunched up her nose.

"Nah. He was clingy before. It was probably all the Elven."

That made the other two snort as they turned in for the evening. Their defacto leader still wasn't happy with the Assassin but they were a team.

Weren't they?

—x—

They split up again the next day as the Inquisitor's team went down to empty the dam. Inquisition scouts were already converging on the keep, Leliana clearly having read The Book ahead of time. Behind the scouts came a small occupying force who set about cleaning the place out and setting up the camp that would become the first stop in a secure route to Denerim.

It was early afternoon by the time the lake had finished draining enough to see the old town. The Honor guard just suited up and went back to the village. Arriving just in time to find the Mayor hurriedly packing. He didn't really fight them though when Brian stepped forward and took the bag.

"It's time, Ser." He said simply and he caved.

They didn't bind him as they left the village, leading him to the keep, but they still watched him carefully right up until they handed him over to the other soldiers for transport to Skyhold.

Not long after they got a surprise in the shape of Hawke and Stroud.

The Champion and the Orlesian Warden only stayed long enough to get supplies. Charter mostly dealt with them, having taken over command of the camp but they lingered nearby. They were honestly kinda relieved that the Warden was Stroud. If it had been Alistair then none of them would have been able to bring themselves to let him get killed. As terrible as it might be, It was easier to make the decision at the crux of Adamant when they weren't faced with someone who equaled Hawke in emotional value.

Speaking of which, the Champion twitched and whirled on Tracy. She had been standing to one side of the courtyard in his blind spot and put on a mildly startled expression at the sudden and violent movement before a grin took its place, a Thirsty look in her eyes.

"... and here we see the fangirl observing her natural prey." Aura muttered behind her hand to Simon in a rather terrible yet recognizable impersonation of Sir David Attenborough.

Hawke got an interesting expression on his face, clearly recognizing something in the scene, and when the Duo left the Keep he gave her corner a wide berth.

Their laughter followed them into the evening gloom.

—x—

Upon their return to Skyhold Simon dragged the others into the yard in the fort's rear bailey. He marked off a large area with a rope and handed the Soldier and the Assassin a long stick each.

Then he stepped back.

The pair just stared at the sticks, then at Simon, then at each other.

And then Aura shrugged and hit him.

"Oww, jesus woman, what was that for?" Brian reflexively reached for the new sore spot on his shoulder.

"Your inability to span correctly utilize available resources." She snarked and hit him again. He caught the hint and managed to block. The gauntlet on his shield arm more than sufficient against a stick before he retaliated.

"Yeah, well, you suck at team sports." He said as he caught her across the stomach and quickly figured it was the only shot she'd give him when she lunged back in.

"Construct! Additional! Pylons!" Was a warcry punctuated by a swish-swish-stab as they abandoned all actual skill and descended into name calling and hitting each other. Simon stood back and supervised the exercise. It was bad enough that they were in a medieval world let alone letting their differences rule them. They had worked together before, they were pretty good at it too. They all had their baggage and letting it get the better of them wouldn't help.

"So is this how you lot sort shit out? Man, You humans are weird." He looked down to see Varric of all people standing at his elbow looking tussled, like he'd only just dragged himself out of bed.

"-uptight brown noser!" Thwack!

"-stab happy murderhobo!" Whomp!

... He couldn't really argue that now could he.

"You should see how the Qunari do it." He found himself snarking back before he could catch himself. The dwarf responded with a bark of laughter. They watched his teammates going back and forward with increasingly elaborate name calling in comfortable silence. Of all the inquisition members they interacted with Varric had been one of the few give them more than a passing glance. One uniform was as good as any in an Army, but they'd been following the Herald around since the Chantry Dungeons and It was easy to forget that Varric had been there just as long.

"-Monkey shaped poop flinger!" Crack!

"-what did you just call me?!" Clang!

Cassandra often just dismissed them. Her noble upbringing somewhat blinding her to individuals. Solas was caught up in his plans and unless Tracy was staring too hard or Mahanon was in the room he cared little to notice them. Vivienne was much the same, she had agendas that didn't expand to the rank and file while Dorian was mildly unsettled by how unphased they were.

"-you fight like a Dairy Farmer!"

"-how appropriate! You fight like a cow!"

The rest of the inner circle were all different again.

Sera was moderately distrustful, but then again she was about as hot and cold as Aura was depending on the day. Cole, the good boy that he was, often tried to rope them into helping. He'd grasped the fact that they knew about him and the others and while he hadn't told anyone he had rather slyly leveraged it into many different favors. Bull actually watched them the most. They could almost see the little hamster wheels in the spy's brain turning as he did so. No one had ever accused The Iron Bull of being stupid.

And Blackwall... well Blackwall was too busy training recruits, safe and happy being a mushroom.

"-I've spoken with apes more polite than you!"

"-good to hear you attended your family reunion."

Simon gave his own startled laugh as he realized where the fight had gone. The two combatants were no longer just hitting each other for the sake of hitting, they'd taken on stances like they were fencing and were going back and forward across the ring in time to the insults.

"-people fall at my feet when they see me coming!"

"-even before they smell your breath?"

Oh good lord they were really both utter nerds.

"-there are no words for how Disgusting you are!"

"-yes there are, you just never learned them."

Varric blinked hard and shook his head a little before pulling out a notebook and charcoal and starting to take notes.

"Seriously kid, you guys have some interesting pastimes, what are they even doing?" The Night Guard put his face in his hands.

"It's insult sword fighting." He groaned. "I didn't realize they were both old enough to know about that game." New bodies meant none of them were the same age as they were before and that just made him wonder when their birthdays were here.

The charcoal paused against the paper.

"So it was something popular where you're from?" Simon rolled his eyes at the probing.

"It was from a story. About a man who wanted to be a pirate, but all the pirates could only be beaten in a sword fight if you insulted them successfully or managed the correct response three times and when the main character was fighting them at sea the insults had to rhyme or they didn't count. It was really popular with children."

"-You're a disgrace to your species, you're so undignified!"

"-at least mine can be identified."

"Damn, you really can't just make this shit up can you." The Dwarf gave another huff of laughter, clearly enjoying the show and Simon decided that if they had to fight each other, at least this was more constructive than doing it in the middle of a mission.

"-your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of Elderberries!"

"-I fart in your general direction! Now go away before I taunt you a second time!"

—x—

With tempers cooled and the rightful order restored Brian and Aura had finished their argument for the most part. In spite of his completionist habits Aura had successfully Alpha Nerded at Brian with the sheer variety of subject matter in her box of fandoms and they'd hashed out a truce. Their only sticking point had been the so called booty trap Brian had called on her having been hanging around the Inquisitor, but that had become a moot point rather quickly when they found Brian going out of his way to spend time talking with Cassandra.

They'd agreed to leave well enough alone after that.

Tracy had complained for all of a minute that Voldemort was also repelled by children, but, given how she doted on her adoptee it wasn't like she was going to give him up any time soon.

Simon for his part had been spending time with Josephine.

A lot of time with Josephine.

She'd finally tracked him down and all but told the Inquisitor that she was stealing his guard to work for her. The elf had been mildly bemused but hadn't protested the claim and now he was crammed into a desk near Josie working as a scribe. She'd quizzed hm on all manner of documents and knowledge before putting him to work. He didn't know shit about many of the things she worked on, nobles and courtly intrigues hadn't been talked about in this much depth in the game and he was lost under the myriad of names and faces that cycled through the fortress but he didn't need to know them when he was behind the desk writing.

That said he didn't realize he'd hit a flag until the woman in question suddenly sat back with a long sigh. She'd spent most of the morning going over correspondence that sounded vaguely familiar with Leliana. He'd just been trying not to be noticed by the spymaster anymore than he usually was.

"Is everything alright?" He asked more out of habit than anything else. She smiled wanly at him.

"Everything is fine." She sighed again and got up from her desk to pace. "You've been an immense help, but I do admit I miss my staff from the embassy in Antiva. It was useful to discuss visitors as the end of the day."

Simon turned sideways on his chair to watch her pace.

"I would be considered your staff, yes?" He asked. And she looked thoughtful. "I could probably do with a break too." He admitted, massaging his hand. Quills were a different monster in comparison to a pen.

Or a keyboard.

An unreadable look crossed her face and before he knew it they were seated across the room by the fireplace drinking tea while Josephine told funny stories from her past encounters with the nobility.

Simon had enjoyed it simply because he'd had few opportunities to socialize with people who weren't crazy humans from another world. He didn't realize that being as attentive as he was could be mistaken for something else until Brian came looking for him for training and the ambassador had gone back to her desk, blushing.

"So the ambassador huh?" The soldier asked.

Simon blinked at him.

"The what now?"

Brian just gave him a 'duh' look.

"You do realize you just stole a cut scene from the Inquisitor right?" He said outright and Simon stopped in the middle of the courtyard.

"What?"

The Evening guard laughed at him.

—x—

Chapter Text

So, contrary to expectations the Ball at the Winter Palace was due to occur first.

Incidentally it wasn't being held in winter either.

The Inquisitor had been busy for the last month or so racing across the Exalted Plains putting the dead back in their graves and putting a rather decisive halt to the fighting between Celene and Gaspard's forces in an attempt to get an invitation. The soldiers had been so freaked out by the multitude of Demons swarming the Ramparts and Trenches that they'd locked themselves in their fortresses until the Inquisition had rolled on through to rescue them.

The guards had once again smuggled themselves out of Skyhold on Scout Harding's coat tails. She'd been more than a little amused by their exit, especially when Simon nearly fell out of his saddle while sliding down to avoid being seen by Josephine. He was still a little unnerved by the cutscene, he'd loved the Antivan woman in the game but awkward human was awkward without a script to hide behind.

"I got spurs, that jingle jangle jingle! As I go riding merrily along..." Tracy was half singing, half humming out loud as the four of them rode their patrol route through the nebulous middle area of the plains that was a soft border between where the soldiers ramparts were built and the forests where the Dalish were currently taking refuge. Mahanon had been entirely too pleased to see other elves and had been crisscrossing the plains to help them out. Brian had been handed a list of things they themselves were supposed to be doing on their behalf as well while they moved.

"Ohhh." They came to a halt as Aura perked up in her saddle and looked over the horizon. "Fight." She stated before leaping from her horse and scrambling up a nearby ruined wall to get a better look at what lay ahead. They others dismounted and tied off their horses nearby before they sidled up by her perch.

"What do you see?" Brian asked, voice pitched low. The Assassin 'hmmm'ed'.

"Mages. A group of them. And it looks like they're being bothered by bandits." It hadn't come to blows yet, they'd been shouting back and forward for a while by all appearances but it likely wouldn't stay at words.

"How many?"

The woman hummed again and counted.

"Nine mages. Seventeen bandits."

Tracy clambered up the wall for a better look herself and almost immediately zoned in on the man standing at the head of the group of mages. He was a relatively unattractive man with a wide square face and a rather sad attempt at a mustache. The newly minted Dreamer nearly fell off her perch as she squawked in outrage.

"Holy Fuck!" She cursed and grabbed the other woman by the ankle. "We need to get down there! Or better yet! Shoot them! Shoot any of them! Especially that mage!" She pointed right at the guy.

"What's going on?" Brian called up, still unable to see.

"Companion quest!" Tracy whisper shrieked back, sliding back down the wall and hefting her mace. "Those Kirkwall bastards! They haven't summoned anything yet!" She was lit up all fire and brimstone and outrage as her words sank in and a sudden sense of urgency began to thrum under their skin as they realized what was going on.

"Fuck!" Simon cursed just as forcefully as he prepared to run. Brian watched them hunch low and move up behind the bandits and gestured up to the Assassin who had begun to string her bow.

"Voldemort." She clarified, stamping the top of the wall for a stable position and drawing her first arrow. "Save the Spirit, Save the world." And if that wasn't motivation enough then nothing was. Even before he caught up with the others arrows were flying over their heads. The fletching done in such a way that they whistled through the air and hit their targets with intimidating force. The bandit leader that had been doing the talking near on flew sideways as the bolt went through his skull and nearly tore his head off.

The two female mages lingering in the back of the group screamed in alarm and the mage in front followed suit, falling on his ass as he scrambled back from the newly made corpse. It was about then that Simon and Tracy hit the Bandits back ranks. The great sword user having absolutely zero finesse as he performed the classic spin to win, his blade a great pendulum of steel that cut through anyone that got close, heedless of who was standing where.

Opposed to him, Tracy's grim warcry as she came in swinging was a far sight from their first days in the Hinterlands. She was terrified and determined in equal measures as she steamrolled through the rain of arrows and blades. They'd all been caught out by the sudden attack and the bandits struggled to put up any sort of defense before they were crushed.

The mages stared open mouthed in the wake of their Roflstomp and one thin looking man in the middle passed out as Tracy whirled on them. She actively had to draw her own emotions back under control when one last arrow descended, stopping her from advancing on the survivor's.

(Never let it be said that a fangirl couldn't hold a grudge with fanatical zeal.)

She made her own curses in Elvhen, Tevene and common before she stomped away leaving the mages standing on the path looking uncertain and afraid as she stomped back toward the horses. She could just hear Brian beginning to smooth things over as she rounded a boulder. Once she was out of sight she went into a crouch, bit onto a clean part of her sleeve and gave a muffled scream.

And then burst into tears.

It could be said that for many a Lavellan on the Dread Wolf's tail that this scene was a traumatic one. In the game they'd watch helpless to change the outcome as their love interest had to say goodbye to one of his oldest and dearest friends. It was also said that this was one of the formative scenes that had hardened his resolve to stay his course and forge on with his plans until they turned him into the enemy. There had been much speculation on the topic wondering whether it may have been better or worse for Wisdom to survive the Summoning and now, it supposed, that they might get the chance to find out.

"Well I guess Reaver was the right class then."

Aura spoke from above, her shadow visible atop that of the boulder as she peered down at her. Tracy hiccuped with a laugh, unable to stop the messy, ugly sobs. She'd just killed half a dozen people, she was covered with blood and gore and she couldn't stop sobbing but it was okay, she'd be okay. She'd just confronted one of the biggest Trauma's inflicted by a video game.

The Assassin just slid off the rock and stood next to her, giving her a rather wooden headpat.

"There, there." She tried and the Dreamer burst out laughing again.

"You-" her breath hitched. "You're not good at this."

"Nope." The other woman made an obnoxious popping noise to emphasize the word, her hand heavy and grounding atop her head.

Tracy started laughing harder until the tears dried and she had no breath left to do much more than wheeze.

Eventually she pushed the Morning guard away and scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve, using the boulder to pull herself to her feet. There was quiet chatter nearby as Brian and Simon started herding the group toward their main camp. They promised to take them as far and from there they could see if the Inquisition had a use for them.

The mage with the sad mustache talked, now mostly over his earlier lapse in decorum. He bragged how he was the foremost expert in summoning in the Kirkwall circle. It had Brian looking at him in surprise as he realized where he'd heard it before. It was Simon who put a stop to his behavior.

"I suppose it's a bit of a moot point, all mages technically being apostates and all now, but isn't interacting with demons the act of a Maleficar?" He asked making all the mages go quiet. "Suffice to say even if summons could be useful in the right circumstances, if we came across one in the field of battle it would likely just be considered an enemy, same as any other demon we face here, and potentially it's summoner. Venatori have been known to make use of similar methods, it would be unsafe to practice them with suspicions so high."

The Kirkwall 'expert' clammed up after the rather gentle warning and didn't say another word.

When they got back to camp they found the Inquisitor and his current party gathered around the scout's cook fire.

"Trouble?" Mahanon got to his feet as they approached , taking in their bloodied appearances.

"Meh, nothing too serious." Aura drawled as she pulled her bow off her back and dropped it by the guards tent, making her way toward the stew that she could smell in the pot. "Just some bandits, found a few new recruits for you." The elf gave her a smirk in return.

"Why do I feel like I suddenly have a cat leaving me dead offerings?" He asked and the Assassin laughed, before leaving them to do the explaining. Cassandra and Solas looked on with something like amusement, oblivious to how the world had changed while Cole appeared quietly at Tracy's side and held her hand.

"All new, faded for her." He quoted. "Everything changed and he'll never know how lucky he was." Fresh tears welled up but didn't fall as she got a hold of herself.

"Yep." She agreed, "He'll never know." It would be better if he never knew, just how close he'd come to losing his friend.

"It will be alright now. You changed it. Changed everything." Cole reassured her with familiar words and an awkward smile, then within the space of a moment he was gone. Tracy smiled to herself and went to get changed out of her armor.

She may have felt better but her gear certainly didn't.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

"So what were you planning to wear to the ball anyway?" Tracy asks when they pass through the Emerald Graves on the way back toward Skyhold. "You know we're likely just going to get crammed in a uniform right?"

They were riding along the back of the group, following the Inquisitor and his team at a much more sedate pace as they traversed the royal highway. They weren't planning on being here long. They'd be sticking around long enough to pick up what they needed from the red templars and Lyrium smugglers before skipping back to base. They did still have to prepare for the ball after all.

Aura just looked around them, eyeing whoever might be listening before she nudged their horses closer and leaned in.

"I'll show you when we get to Skyhold."

The answer made the Dreamer scoff but she carefully didn't react more than that. Aura seemed amused in any case as she put more distance between them again. Getting worked up at a troll like her would only end in frustration.

The Emerald Graves live up to their name. The plant life there is vibrant, broken only by the number of Orlesian Villa's that dot the landscape like great blue corpses. The honor guard are pulled into service to follow the Inquisitor down into the ravine hiding Fairbanks and his people. They're left behind as well when the main team eventually runs off. The robin hood equivalent is apprehensive enough without having them breathing down his neck, so they make themselves busy while they wait for the Inquisitor to return.

There are things here they could do. Especially treasure hunting. But they don't have long. It's barely a day or two before they find themselves back on the road, now with the evidence gathered from Red Templar mine sites.
The journey back up into the frostbacks is only broken by the occasional bandit attack before Skyhold comes into view. Even from lower elevations it cuts an impressive view atop its summit and it's a welcome sight, in spite of how often they find themselves fleeing it's walls.

There are people in the courtyard, clearly waiting for Mahanon as the guard fall into the back of the convoy and Simon just groans as he sees Josephine peering about eagerly from the stairs to the main hall. They end up sneaking into the barracks from the stables to avoid her.

It's a day later before Tracy finally convinces the Assassin to show her the outfit she'd been planning like she'd said and when she walks into the alcove off the undercroft where the Assassin had taken to spending her time she gets one look at the makeshift dress form and goes still.

"Really?" She deadpans.

Aura smiles back at her vacantly.

"You don't even have the ears for it." Tracy continues.

The smile gets wider.

"Oh god what are you thinking?"

The dress itself is fine. It has a full black skirt with fine gold embroidery in rather ornate patterns along the hem. The bodice parts in the front from the bust draping artfully either side before coming to a point in the back. It has a square neckline and while technically sleeveless, the shoulders are capped by small pauldrons that have been bushed in gold.

But most damning is the tabard of stiffened fabric draped down the front of the skirt embroidered with painfully familiar heraldry.

It belongs to a princess.

An elf princess...

A video game elf princess.

And it's virtually the biggest kind of in-joke 'fuck you' that she could give a room full of elf hating nobles short of wearing Voldemort's silly phallic helmet.

Tracy looks her fellow dimensional hopper dead in the eye.

"You, are going to a masked ball, cosplaying as Princess Zelda."

"Yep."

The afternoon guard has to stare a bit longer because she's not entirely sure what to even think about that. Instead she examines the dress while her mind mostly blue screens.

"Did you actually make this?" She asks eventually and the Assassin hums a 'yes'. She whistles in appreciation. "It's pretty good. If we're stuck here after you could totally get a job as a seamstress." The other woman's expression is telling to how she feels about that.

"Nah, it would take effort." She complains and it just confirms Tracy's thoughts about her. She is mad. Mad and lazy. For someone who went out of their way to overachieve in the stupidest things she never seemed to want to work at all.

"Mad." She says out loud then pauses. "...Think you could replicate Galadriel's..."

The assassin is smirking at her slyly like she knows exactly why she wants that dress in particular.

Tracy just grabs a nearby spool of thread and lobs it at her head.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

They know when the invitation arrives because Josephine nearly squeals in delight. Simon, who had been found once more and forced back to the scribe desk is at ground zero as she reads it. That it's from Gaspard puts the slightest shade on the whole thing, but the Ambassador is pleased none the less.

The whole serving staff goes into a flurry of preparation and Vivienne is seen strutting around organizing the uniforms and lessons to her liking. The guards all snicker behind their hands as they watch Aura following the Inquisitor around, stealing his books or sitting in on lessons to figure out who is who. The inner circle hasn't noticed her yet, they think she's just on duty for the day and forget she's there but the other three haven't forgotten her desire to murder hobo.

She's not learning who is who. She's figuring out who it's okay to just kill.

And so they're eventually dragged off to Halamshiral.

The Honor Guard have their place this time. Polished to a shine in full armor they march in ahead of the Inquisitor and his party with all the ceremonial pomp and circumstance that's expected for such an auspicious occasion. Josephine, Leliana and Cullen are right behind their leader and behind them stand Bull, Varric and Dorian.

It's a pretty fascinating composition all things considered. They'd tried to bring more, but being guests of Gaspard meant that they were limited on how many could attend with the same invitation. The guards themselves were just glad they didn't have to put up with Voldemort creeping around the palace being a nuisance. Still, most players brought along their love interests for the bonus interactions at the end of the night but it seemed that the Inquisitor hadn't made any decision on that front yet.

Then again, given how things had worked out recently maybe he had.

Still, the Honor guard were ushered back out of the palace grounds to wait by the carriages they'd used to get there and the moment they were out of sight of anyone else the Morning Guard just started to strip out if her inquisition armor to reveal a familiar set of brotherhood shrouded gear underneath.

"Geeze, when did you get the time to even make that?" Brian asked, settling down on a hay bale in the stables. Aura grabbed a pack with her dress and slung it over her back before loading down with a dozen knives.
"There's always time." She says simply in response as she pulls up her hood and mask. She's the only one of them going in. Mostly because she's the only one with the required stealth level to do so. Harlequins and Venatori aren't the only ones crawling over the building this night and the others would only slow her down.

"Happy hunting." Simon wishes her mildly as she gets a running start and clambers up a post onto the roof of the stable. Once she's gone Tracy pulls out a deck of cards. Aura hadn't been the only one making things it seems.

"Anyone want to play go fish?"

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

The first time he sees her Mahanon nearly has a heart attack.

When they'd planned their entry they'd been forced to leave the rest of their people outside. He'd been resigned to having his advisors and his team as the only backup but he should have guessed that the gods masquerading as Guards might have something of their own planned.

He just hadn't expected to run smack dab into the Dark Sister.

It gave him an eerie feeling of déjà vu as he walked into the garden, intent on checking in with Dorian only to spy her on a higher balcony having leapt from the roof, blades in hand to land on the necks of two men clad in Venatori garb.

He couldn't get up the trellis fast enough.

A trail of blood lead to a side room where she crouched rifling through their pockets. She looked up when he entered and he could see the smile in her eyes as she wordlessly handed him a halla statuette. He wanted to ask what she was doing there, but she just held a finger to his lips and shook her head.

Right... people nearby might hear.

She points at a cabinet in which he finds a tidbit that's good enough to hand to Leliana. She's still smiling behind the mask when she gets up and moves on. He trails in her wake as she slips into the pair of doors dead center on the balcony and vanishes into the shadows. Losing sight of her is unnerving, but it was a surprise to see her in the first place so he goes on with his intended course. He's properly rummaged through the Occult advisors office before she appears again one finger pointed upward.

He listens and it's just in time for the first bell. She bows him out through the library with a comically large sweep of her arms and his mood is high even after he runs into said arcane advisor outside the door.

"You're in a good mood." Leliana comments as he approaches her in the ballroom. "Are you enjoying the ball that much?"

The night has been full of surprises and its only just begun.

"You know what, I think I am."

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

If there was one thing that the night had reinforced, it was that she hated clowns.

Creepy fucking clowns.

After she'd left the Inquisitor she'd snuck into the hall where Bull was stationed by the Buffet table looking big. At this point in the night he was surrounded by enough fluttering ladies that he didn't notice her scarffing down hor d'Oeuvres and vanishing back out the window.

From there she'd gone up.

The rooftops had a token lookout that was easy enough to get around. It made her wonder if rooftops were even used. Who needed to smuggle things in when you had a virtual highway through the entire building.

But her target had been the Harlequins.

The assassins were in direct opposition to their goals and a threat to the Inquisitor that was wholly unacceptable. And well... to quote and old favorite.

"Obstacles are for killing!"

In fact she knew where to find one soon. There had been a Harlequin chasing a servant in a cutscene with the implication that he'd already murdered a good number of the help. She angled that way and found the courtyard and waited... she didn't have to wait long.

A scream rent the night air and a wet squelch came from below.

Someone started running.

She dropped down from her lofty perch and ran, skittering through the shadows until she was close and when the distressed elf ran through the archway...

"Aaaahhhh!" The woman shrieked in alarm as she was grabbed, her momentum swinging her into a hedge while the glancing knife was deflected. The Harlequin came up short, confronted by a new challenger.

Their tense stand off was interrupted a moment later by the clattering of armor and the Inquisitor came wondering into the scene. Faced with overwhelming numbers the clown did the smart thing and ran. The assassin let go of the whimpering elf and cursed loudly before giving pursuit. Blood rushing in her ears and a grin hidden behind her mask as she focused on keeping up.

She was getting herself a jingling hat!

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

"Who, or what, was that."

They'd expected the carnage in the Servant's quarters after seeing the reports on how many didn't come back, and they'd been right to brace themselves given how deserted the kitchens were. The rooms nearest where the servant's slept had been filled with corpses.

It hadn't been a pretty sight.

But this?

Varric was gentlemen enough to go over and attempt to calm down the woman who had been thrown into the hedge during the assassin's standoff. Bull was wary and alert, staring into the evening gloom as if either assassin would leap out at him. Dorian wasn't much better.

"I believe you're already familiar with her work Dorian." The Inquisitor directed the answer to Bulls question to the mage instead, not sounding the least bit concerned as he approached a body that had been left by a fountain, noting the crest on the knife that stuck out of his back. "That, was the Dark Sister."

Dorian blanched, remembering the dark future where they'd wondered through a dungeon full of bodies.

"At least she's on our side." The mage agreed faintly. Mahanon hummed and nodded, using a scrap of cloth to pull the dagger out of the victims back.

"Wait, is that one of the emissaries for the council of heralds?" Bull finally chooses to pay attention and it's only hours of lessons with Josephine and Vivienne that allow the Elf to confirm it.

"Yes, and that's the Chalons family crest." He gestures with the dagger.

"Do you think Gaspard would be so bold? Or is it a setup?" Dorian peers at it, trying to gauge it's authenticity. The Inquisitor just shrugged and pushed the dagger into his boot.

"No way to know just yet, we should get moving, the Sister will handle the Assassin." He's oddly confident but the other three don't question it too hard as they move into the guest wing. It had been out of use for some time, but given how renovations where being done on the royal wing it now houses the royal family.

It's oddly fortunate, all things considered. It makes gaining access to evidence that much easier.

As they move they find Venatori everywhere. In the occasional dark corner they even find a few of them dead. In the distance they notice the flash of the Harlequins bright garment but never manage to spot their pursuer. At one point they get bogged down in a dining room about twice the size of Skyhold's main hall but they eventually stumble across the Empresses current sleeping chamber.

But more importantly her vault. There's a Halla statue like the others they've been collecting all evening pointedly set on a chair in the middle of the room that allows them to open the door and they don't find much, just the usual vault clutter, however on the way out Mahanon spies something that jogs a memory.

'How does one forget their first love?'

It was a question from the book. Listed under a section labeled 'Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts' that was almost entirely just questions. Now looking at the necklace of elven make though he suspects he knows the answer.

'You don't.'

He is beginning to suspect that The Book is less a telling of the future as they saw it and more an excuse to tell him everything under the guise of a forgotten future.

But he doesn't have time to dwell. The others call out and they leave the room just in time to see the Harlequin dash past, a dark blur in pursuit. He rushes after them, the clown now throwing things into the disguised guard's path in an attempt to slow her down but she'd radiating a familiar wicked glee as they reach a long corridor and she makes a final leap.

Blood spatters across the parquet floor and she all but yells in triumph. She tramples the body once she's climbed to her feet and there's no protest. The Clown is well and truly dead by the time she pulls off the pointy hat with it's jingling bells and stuffs it into her pack.

Mahanon clears his throat.

The Dark Sister nearly jumps out of her skin at the sound and it makes him smile at how sheepish she looks turning toward them. She eyes the group and then looks to him and for a long moment no one says anything before she crooks an arm up toward her chest and makes a single sound.

"Meow."

He blinks.

Looks back at the body.

Then bursts out Laughing.

At some point the Assassin vanishes into the shadows and the next thing he hears is Briala as she steps in through one of the wide glass doors leading to the balcony.

"Enjoying the festivities, Inquisitor?" She asks somewhat sourly as he takes a great heaving breath to stop the giggles.

"Yes." He answers outright this time. "Yes I am."

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

Varric has seen some pretty strange things in his time.

Life with Hawke made many mundane things that much more interesting, given the sheer amount of weird or ludicrous shit that happened to his friend. The Inquisitor had taken that scale and cranked it up to twelve. Old gods, holes in the sky, a magic hand and now an Assassin cramming their face with pastries while they glared down at the dance floor.

Of course he hadn't realized that he knew the assassin.

The woman that the Inquisitor had introduced as the Dark Sister wasn't just any old mysterious killer.

She was his morning guard.

And he knew that because she had pulled down her mask to eat the aforementioned pastries. It was a wonder no one else had noticed her, dressed as she was. Not to mention the entire platter that had been stolen from the buffet table.

"So... stabby? What brings you to the ballroom?" He asks and gets a hand in his face. A single finger waggling back and forward. "What, can't tell me? Should I guess?" The finger wiggles again more insistently as the Inquisitor and Duchess Florianne waltz on past. He raises an eyebrow but she gives him a gesture for silence before pointing at their leader and then at her ears. It takes a moment but...

"You mean to say that if you speak the Inquisitor will hear you. From the dance floor. All the way over there." He's certainly skeptical as she crams one more pastry into her mouth, chews furiously and then says quite softly.

"Meow."

On the dance floor the Inquisitor nearly stumbles and immediately spins Florianne around so he can take a sweeping look over the viewing gallery. The Assassin quickly ducked out of view but it's a near thing.
She gives him a flat look. 'Happy now?' It asks and he's hard pressed not to believe it.

"Well, that's certainly interesting." He's not sure what else to say. But at this point he should probably just write off everything as weird. She goes back to staring at the dancers and then speaks again, this time much softer but by the looks of it the inquisitor still hears.

"Is it really what she wants? People spend so much time talking about Gaspard that they forget just who stands in his shadow."

Varric's eyebrows are ready to crawl off his face when he sees the elf say something and get the most sour look from the Duchess that's so clearly a hit in their verbal sparing match that even though no one can actually hear the conversation people still tut and titter at the expression on Florianne's face.

He turns to comment on what it was she'd said only to find a bewildered looking servant holding the now empty platter.

"How'd that get here?" He wonders quietly and walks away.

The dwarf takes a moment to look around but the Assassin has long vanished into the crowd and he's distracted as the Inquisitor drops the Duchess into a dip to finish the dance.

There's a smattering of approving applause from those watching before he's off the floor and running into Leliana.

With the show over his own adoring fans start to return and he's swamped with autograph requests and pleading for the next volume of Swords and Shields.

He's going to kill his editor.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

There was a clown in the Kitchens.

She'd doubled back, intent on taking a look for anything the inquisitor had missed when she stumbles upon him. It was infinitely easier to sneak up on the man when he wasn't in the middle of chasing down a victim. He'd been lingering around like he was waiting for someone looking distinctly bored when she came up behind him and ended his life with a knife through the ribs. He barely had time to struggle and honestly she felt somewhat slighted at how easy it had been.

Still, she pocketed her second jingling hat of the evening and moved on. The royal wing was next. Currently not in use it was the perfect place for all sorts of people or things to hide.

With a quick jump into the rafters she has another Halla Statuette and she's on her way up the side of the building, wondering if they design the buildings to all have climbing trellises on purpose or if it's just a passing phase. Then again. The people who lived in these buildings probably didn't take Assassins and thieves into account when they made escape routes for their illicit love interests.

(Cue the Cassandra noises.)

For her next act of murder hobo she pulls out a rope.

In the game the Inquisitor kicks a Harlequin out the window to save the elven serving woman that was sent by Briala to die. They never confirmed his death in the game. After all. No body, no loot, it was still alive. She'd just have to make sure the 'this is Sparta' moment stuck.

It's with that in mind that she loops the rope around one of the many sturdy looking roof ornaments and fashions one end into a noose.

The Harlequin walks right into it.

He came up the side of the building and had noted the open window, but she'd looped the noose around his neck in the dark and pulled tight. Then using her own weight had strung him up so that he dangled just out of reach of the frame. A scream from inside told her that the elf waiting within had seen it and a crash a moment later signaled her Inquisitor entering the scene.

There was a moment of silence.

"Well, you have to admire her work ethic, but I don't think "stabby" is going to work anymore."

She liked Varric, he was funny. She giggled in spite of herself and meowed again under her breath. Mahanon must have reacted because there was a quick intake of breath.

"She's still here isn't she." The dwarf sounded resigned. The assassin peeked over the window frame just in time to see the elf nod and with a quick leap up the shutters she waited till they looked away and stole the hat.

That was three.

Dorian cursed in alarm at the jingle and she kept going up and over. She'd left a small pile of statues right outside the door with the unfortunate soldier so she had every bit of faith that they'd find the poor sod. With that done there was nothing to do but head right for the ambush...

Only there was another Harlequin waiting.

"Ohhohohoho."

It was the last thing he heard.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

By the time the evening was over there was peace in Orlais.

Well. For a given measure of peace.

After finding His Guards morbid gift outside the window he'd gone on to find dirt of the other two controlling forces of Orlais and had walked right into an ambush. Of course half way through Florianne's gloating he'd eyed the unopened rift in the air above, one seemingly unnoticed by the Duchess and heard the voice on the wind.

'How about we invite a few more to the party?'

He hadn't hesitated.

Florianne had fled immediately rather than face the demons that spilled out across the courtyard. They killed anything that moved in the confusion before hiring the mercenary captain and hot footing it back to the ballroom.
The look on Florianne's face had been glorious as he'd aired her plot to the court.

He'd then proceeded to black mail the remaining three into working together. It wasn't going to last, they'd be back to fighting before long, but for now they were stable. He only needed it to be that way while he dealt with Corypheus. After that... well... meh.

But right at that moment, as Morrigan left him there on the balcony having delivered the news of her assignment, all he wanted to do was stand there and look at the stars.

"...So did you have fun tonight...?"

He nearly started at the sudden voice and turned his head only to freeze at the sight.

His morning guard stood at his left, just behind where his peripheral vision stopped, but it wasn't that she'd snuck up on him, she did that all the time. No it was the fact that she was in a long black and gold dress. The change was so drastic he barely recognized her as she came to lean against the railing beside him.

"... Yes. Yes I did." He finally found his breath again to answer.

"Good. I did too. I even got the others souvenirs." He gave her a side eye at that, wondering for a moment if he wanted to know and deciding he probably didn't.

"That's nice of you." He said instead, making her snicker before leaning on one arm to face him.

"Although I did notice you only got to dance once..." she said leadingly and he took the hint rather quickly. With a wry smile he stood up properly and held out a hand.

"Oh I realize you're quite danced out from your fun this evening but would you grant this poor elf the last dance?" He was being needlessly dramatic about it but she grinned back at him and placed her hand in his.

"Well I suppose one more wouldn't hurt." She fought to keep from snickering and didn't quite succeed as they fell into a waltzing shuffle.

She wasn't nearly as good as a dancer, but she made up for it in enthusiasm.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

By the time they were ready to leave the party had wound down. Most of the nobles had decided to get drunk as skunks after the announcement of the Alliance and everything had gone typically down hill from there. But, now that the fawning ladies had retreated for the evening the way to the Buffet tables was clear again and The Iron Bull made his way over to raid them one last time, only to stop short at the sight of someone already doing the same thing...

The Inquisitor stood huddled behind the table with a blonde woman in a black dress, the pair all but giggling as they swiped entire platters of cakes and sweets from the desert end. Their thievery done they vanished amid the people and popped up again at the one across the ball room repeating the feat.

Bull followed their progress as they appeared progressively more sugar high and got caught on the woman for a moment, wondering where he'd seen her before...

Then it clicked.

His guard. The woman that followed him around in the mornings. She had the right hair colour, she had the right build... and she also matched the profile of the assassin from earlier in the evening.

No wonder the boss hadn't been remotely wary of her. He'd had her standing behind him since the beginning.

The nobles almost staggered as he burst into loud thundering laughter and stuck his head out into the garden.

"Hey! Hey Dorian! Come here, you have to see this!"

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

It took two days before they were ready to leave Halamshiral.

The day after had been a slow start for most. The entire city felt sluggish given that the majority of the nobles were hungover or exhausted, many making a walk of shame from the places they'd ended up. No one wanted to go back to reality after all the pomp and fantasy. The Inquisition members lazed around the estate lent to them by Gaspard when he'd invited them. Josephine insisted on a few late morning meetings that the Inquisitor was forced to attend and the three members of the honor guard that hadn't attended the ball were actually doing guard duty for once.

Aura had walked out of the Winter Palace on the Inquisitor's arm, spawning any number of rumors among the people who had no idea who she was or where she'd even come from. She'd been sugar high to the extreme carrying the contents of the desert bar in a large backpack and jingling faintly as she walked.

The Inquisitor hadn't been much better and they'd both crashed out in the carriage on the way home like children leaving their first birthday party.

There had been an obscene amount of snickering from the rest of their party as they found them.

Still, as they rode out of the city they were still passing bags of candy and cakes between them but it wasn't until they left the noise and bustle behind that they noticed it.

The ringing of tiny bells.

Almost as one they turned and there in the back of the group arranged loosely around the carriage carrying Josephine were the guards.

Each wearing a pointed hat with bells on... and terrible smiles on their faces.

Chapter Text

—x—
________________________________________

"So... an Assassin huh?"

The Inquisitor looked up over his desk to see Varric standing beside the stairs.

"What?" He asked dumbly, not getting it.

"You know. Your special friend. The one leaving you presents all over the winter palace."

"Oh... what about her?" He goes back to reading the document in front of him. Varric huffs and moves closer.

"You know that hearing thing is more than a little creepy. She was standing right next to me in the ball room. Just what is she? What are they?" The dwarf is serious, a frown on his face as he stands, arms crossed over his chest. Mahanon finally puts down the papers and gives him his attention.

But what does he say?

He doesn't have to say anything honestly. They're his guards and it's been a long time since they've even taken a suggestion from anyone that wasn't him.

"Look, I know you're close with them, but you gotta admit they're weird. Well, weirder than usual. Not even the Nightingale can find where they came from. The only thing I'm sure of is that they came from the same place. Which definitely wasn't here."

There's a long moment of silence and Varric looks like he's about to give up when he finally speaks.

"Varric, do you believe in the maker?"

A strange expression crosses the Dwarf's face at the question.

"Well, kinda? It's easy to imagine someone out there pulling the strings."

"Well what if you prayed for an answer... and then got one?"

He stills, eyebrow raised. Silence stretches between them as the writer processes that thought and his eyebrows climb higher.

"That... that's crazy talk there glowy." He says finally. "Sure it isn't just some kinda magic?"

The elf snorts.

"Solas, Vivienne and Dorian all confirmed that none of them are mages. There's no magic in them. Cole says they aren't like him either." He revealed his own probing. "But they're not out to get us if that's what you're asking."

He contemplated his desk drawer and finally unlocked it, pulling out it's contents and dropping it down with a thud where Varric could see it.

"When we were in Redcliffe and I ended up in the future they sent me this."

He opened The Book and turned it to the first page detailing the events of Haven. The dwarf read it, eyes going wide before Mahanon took it back and turned to a page with his name on it and tugged out the lose sheets, placing them side by side.

"Well shit." He said at last, utterly flabbergasted. "This is how Nightingale knew where to look for the hack writer." He stated more than asked, waving the page. Mahanon nodded solemnly
before he took it and rearranged their order. That done he turned to another section where lists of questions were written in neat little boxes under various cryptic headers.

There was one though that caught his eye. One very small box had a single question titled with the two words he'd just said.

Well, shit.
How did Corypheus learn about the red lyrium?

It could have been something from his own mouth and he looked back at the Inquisitor.

"They wrote this?" He asked. Mahanon nodded, closing it and locking it back in his desk.

"Somehow they knew they'd get a chance to pass it on. Not even I was sure if it was possible to get back. The Dark Sister was waiting for me in Redcliffe Castle when I arrived and she handed me that."

And Varric isn't sure how to feel about that.

It likely doesn't help when he turns around and she's there, standing right behind him. She smiles at the inquisitor and it's one of someone happy to see him, but when it's turned on the Dwarf he just feels like there are too many teeth.

"Spooky." He greets, suppressing a flinch.

"Ser Tethras." She responds, mild as milk, like she hadn't just appeared out of nowhere while he was talking about her. He nods to the Inquisitor and makes his excuses, slipping down the stairs.

"I told you he'd be unnerved." He could hear the elf say. There was a giggle.

"He'll come around. Varric Tethras never was any good at denying the truth."

He shivered and fled back to his fire.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

There's a choice ahead of them.

On one hand they could exercise their right to stay behind... or they could go with the Inquisitor to the Western Approach.

They agonize over the decision.

Tracy has already expressed an interest in going. She was determined to see that particular part through. The boys weren't so keen on seeing their nightmares brought to life and Aura...

"Ughh, it gets everywhere."

Hated sand.

"Allegory for his misery or not, Anakin had it right. Sand sucks."

Even before that they had plenty of things to do though.

Tracy found herself combing the gardens for Alim.

She hadn't intended to bring home a child at first. She'd had a goal and in spite of the heckling she got from the others she'd fully planned on being with her Bioware given love interest. But when she'd stepped onto the streets of Val Royeaux that day she'd found the boy getting dragged away by a chevalier having apparently been caught stealing.

The instinct honed by many playthroughs and roleplays had her moving to intercept before she could even stop to think. The chevalier had leered at her for interrupting, but she was human and in armor to boot. It hadn't taken much to convince him that he was part of her household and he'd have to cough up coin for damages if he hurt him.

The man had thrown the boy at her and stomped away.

In his wake, she'd been shaking, the kid had been shaking and she'd managed to pull him out of the street before she knelt down and checked that he was okay. Other than a few bruises he'd been fine, but even though she'd suggested he run back to wherever he lived, he'd lingered nearby.

Turns out he hadn't had a place. Nor a family, or even a name.

So when he followed them out of the city for the trip back to haven she'd doubled back, picked him up by the scruff of his threadbare shirt and sat him in front of her on the horse. It was about then she realized that he was, in fact, an elf and after a few questions about who the Warden was in this world state, she gave him a dead man's name.

Alim.
Alim Surana.

He had lived in their cabin in Haven. Alim had cleaned up nicely and she'd made arrangements for him to work and be fed. With his basic needs met she hadn't been concerned about leaving him for the periods of time for her to go gallivanting off after the Inquisitor.

She did however feel a little bad about the look Cullen got when he heard her calling after him that one time. The afternoon guard had completely forgotten that he'd also been in the circle and had known the warden candidate before his death. She felt a little bad about it in hindsight but there was no taking it back now, Alim was very attached to his new name.

As it was though, Aura had beaten her to telling him about his namesake.

After reaching Skyhold she'd spent more and more time apart from him. First when they'd gone to Crestwood, then the Exalted Plains and then off to the ball. He'd shot up like a weed and filled out even more while she wasn't looking. And now it seemed...

He'd made a friend.

She came to a stop by the well, looking across the garden to where the boy sat in the Gazebo with a familiar dark haired boy wearing a silverite griffin pendant. They seemed to be having a rather solemn conversation so she stayed back, her earlier urgency gone.

It had maybe been half an hour before she heard a voice behind.

"I had wondered why my son would have been delayed for lessons. Here of all places." Morrigan sounded stiff. Tracy just grinned, still observing her boy.

"They've been talking since before I got here. Alim doesn't have any friends his own age. So I don't know about you, but I'm not to concerned about where it's going." There was silence from behind her as she wondered what was going on in the other woman's head.

She did not expect the woman to basically step up beside her and make herself comfortable.

"So this child is yours?" Came the lofty question. The dreamer shook her head.

"Well of course he's not mine mine." She said in the 'duh' tone. "I found him in Val Royeaux and he followed me home." She chanced a look at the woman and resisted the urge to giggle awkwardly as she saw her expression, but damn the witch of the wilds was intense. Hawkish yellow eyes stared at her dubiously, an eyebrow raised.

"Indeed, one would be aware that in children born of a human and an elf the child would always be human in appearance." Tracy nodded along, turning back to the children to cover just how unnerved she felt. Alim was now teaching Keiran a clapping game that she'd taught him, one that she'd learned as a child herself. It had started as a way to keep him distracted on the cold march to Skyhold, but he'd been itching to play it with others since and while half dozen scouts knew it by now, the eldergod baby was the first kid.

It made her happy to see him so changed from the dirty urchin that abandoned the alienage orphanage just to follow a stranger into the unknown.

"You care for the child a great deal." She nearly jumped out of her skin when Morrigan spoke, having forgotten that she was there. It hadn't been a question either and she wondered what the other woman had seen.

"Well, yeah. He's grown on me, a lot. I mean, he's an elfling, but I couldn't just leave him to the chevalier's mercy." Morrigan just continued to stare at her for a long moment, before letting out a huff.

"Very well, they may play, but my son is late for lessons." She moved forward and the moment she came into view Kieran visibly straightened, his expression the tiniest bit sheepish. Alim looked past her and lit up like a firecracker.

"Mum!" Tracy found herself going gooey inside at the name and held her arms out to catch him as he barreled into her stomach. She hadn't told him to call her that, but at some point he'd decided it for himself.

"I see you made a friend." She prompted and was dragged over to where the witch and her son now stood.

"This is Kieran! He lived in a palace!" He claimed with great enthusiasm. "This is my mum!" He unceremoniously introduced her to the other boy, the hand not held in hers waving wildly. "She saved me from the bad guys and brought me here!"

Kieran studied her in a very deliberate manner. In that moment he felt old, much much older than he appeared.

"It is nice to meet you." He says in the same oddly formal way as Morrigan.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too Kieran." She smiles back at him as his head tips to the side and he frowns. It's faint, but there.

"Your blood is different." He says.

'Your blood is old.' Her mind supplies and Morrigan looks at her, attention turning sharp.

"Oh? Different how?" She asks lightly. They'd half anticipated that Kieran would notice something, planned for it even, so these words didn't surprise her in the least.

"It looks right, but does not quite fit. Like you stand outside of yourself."

Tracy tugs Alim closer and runs her fingers through his hair as he stares between his adopted mother and his new friend thoughtfully. The Afternoon Guard just regards the boy carefully, more than aware of his mother watching.

"You see much." She answers his observation with one of her own and the thing inside him, the old thing, watches her back. Then, before either of them can continue Morrigan steps in. The old thing retreats and there's just a little boy once more. Excuses are made and Kieran led away with much enthusiastic waving from Alim.

Morrigan is the tiniest bit more wary of her than before.

Eventually they're left standing in the garden and Tracy straightens up.

"Well, since your friend has lessons why don't we have one of our own?" She suggests and the Elfling looks up at her.

"About what?" She pulls him away, down into the kitchens where it's still early enough after lunch that the cooks haven't started dinner yet. So in that window while no one else was around they pilfer the ingredients from the larder and bake cookies. They don't have the materials for many, she doesn't want to be the one who gets in trouble for using all the sugar, but even with medieval ingredients they manage something edible. Alim runs off afterward, inordinately pleased with their efforts and she's left with the cleanup. She's about done when she figures out she's not alone and Sera appears, sitting on top of a barrel with the last cookie in her grasp.

Tracy doesn't acknowledge her at first. The blonde woman had been avoiding her for as long as Alim had been around and she sort of understood why. She'd been adopted in much the same way by a noble lady and her childhood was reflected back at her in Alim. Tracy had spent much more time when she played following on Solas' coattails and had never bothered to romance the Jenny, but she did remember the cookies.

Sera hated cookies.

Now she held one in her hand.

"Well, are you going to eat it?" Tracy asks like it isn't a big deal. Sera just sets her with a narrow eyed look. Saying nothing as Tracy finishes cleaning and starts wrapping up the leftover baked goods to take to the others. There's a long silence between them as the elf studies her like a bug under a microscope.

(Not that the elf knows what that is.)

"Kid calls you mum." She states, her attention turning to the cookie as if looking for the slightest imperfection.

"Yeah, he just started doing that. I don't mind." She gets a grunt in return and eventually, almost reluctantly, she takes a bite. There's a long silence and Tracy has to carefully pretend she'd doing something else so Sera doesn't spook but the archer eventually hops to her feet and says things in a rush before hightailing it out of there.

"Can't be all bad. Got the cookies right."

The Afternoon Guard suddenly feels like she'd adopted another kid by accident, but it's an approval she wasn't expecting and as she leaves to find the others she's smiling to herself.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

For a change of pace they don't sneak out of Skyhold.

They're ordered to go by an amused Inquisitor who has learned his lesson and just brought them along in addition to his usual retinue. It's Bull, Vivienne and Sera this time and it's almost as bad as if they'd stayed.

Bull spends most of the ride trying to guess where they'd come from and if he'd even heard of an Assassin like Aura before. Vivienne pesters her for her dress designer, getting a 'look' on her face when she reveals it to be her own work and Sera needles them all like that one kid who's parents never taught them to read a mood.

By the time they reach their first camp everyone is regretting their life choices a little.

They take a winding path through the emerald graves on the way past, doing a quick sweep of things they'd missed before. The quartet see their chance and steal off toward the river where they find the tiniest cave. All of them feel more than a little foolish as the boys keep watch and Tracy is volunteered to do the jumping. Aura is laughing as she counts it out. Eventually they hear the voice and shove a pile of crystal grace flowers down the hole.

That done they regrouped with the others and moved on.

The Exalted Plains haven't really changed much since they were last there but they do feel watched as they pass. Not by the locals, but by something big and unseen that looks out at them where the veil is thin. The Dalish elves come to say hello when they camp nearby and the Inquisitor is clearly still glad to see them. They're certainly more welcome after the week they'd had thus far.

(He regrets bringing this combination of companions.)

They leave the plains and continue west until the grass and trees give way to rock and sand. They're only just starting to think that the scenery looks vaguely familiar when they stumble into an oasis and the Guards realize they're close to a certain temple but Scout Harding isn't here, having already moved on. There are Venatori absolutely everywhere and they wind up stopping to clear them out if for no other reason than they are obligated to deny the enemy a resource.

Brian remembers the way through the twisting mineshafts and the guards split off from the others, going right to the doors of Solasan. They can't get in, but they can amuse themselves by seeing how long they can spend sitting against the door where the repelling ward is strongest.

About an hour later the main team come barreling out of a tunnel with a whole host of spiders on their heels and Tracy shrieks before hopping up the rocks and continuing to squeal till they're all dead. Aura and Sera end up snickering at her as Vivienne sets the corpses on fire to clean up. The rouges just look at each other, as if startled that they'd found the same things funny... and then... in spite of Sera's earlier apprehension toward the 'might-have-been-elfborn' human, they start bonding.

Almost as one the entire group feels as though someone has started laughing and dancing on their graves.

They're quick to move on, investigating the temple as far as they're able before retreating to camp and setting out again the next morning. They mournfully bid the sheltered oasis goodbye and step out into a sunbaked hell that only has two settings.

Bake your face or freeze your nadders.

There is barely anything in between, nothing to hold the heat. They spend much more time traveling in the twilight hours until they stumble across the scout's camp in the Western Approach. Scout Harding is there, looking far too perky for someone who's been camped out there for like a week. She ends up watching in bemusement as Aura, who has spent most of the journey muttering mutinously about the environment, just stalks past her into a cave. She opens her mouth to say something, but before she can there's snarling and squealing like something dying and eventually everything goes silent.

Not even Bull wants to go in there after that.

"Well I guess that one's clear now." The Scout mumbles before they get started on the briefing.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

So with their artillery unit camped out in a cave snarling like a darkspawn anytime someone suggested going outside in daylight the rest of the Honor guard join the inquisitor scouting the area.

Brian geeks out at the dragon almost as hard as Bull does when they see her land on the great arch of stone that spans the sulfur pits. The Inquisitor just sighs at the sight of them and has one of them run back to the nearest camp to send word to Leliana. Simon did check the book and they had put down the question.

'How does one walk when it's hard to breathe.'

But the message had clearly been vague enough that they hadn't managed to translate it in time. Continuing on they'd unearthed various ruins and signs pointing to the presence of the wardens before they stumbled across another keep. Griffin wing keep should have been a Warden outpost, but as of that moment it was bristling with Venatori mages, red templars and guards.

They looked at each other as they surveilled it from a near by ruined tower.

Sera had near on fallen off said tower laughing as she saw the skeletons atop it arranged as if having a party with the petrified remnants of someone's larder. The sight was made worse when they found that a few wheels of said cheese had been carved to look like people, who were diligently excavating more cheese from the mound. It had actually been quite good, even if it was a miracle that it had survived however long it had. Privately most of them had suspected magic being involved and wondered if it had been left by the wardens before they upped and vanished.
Still, they had learned their lesson from the last time they'd taken a keep and retreated back to the basecamp. It had mostly been moved into the cave their wayward assassin now occupied and the Inquisitor braced himself before going into her corner.

The others had watched as she'd gone from cranky, to thoughtful, then delighted as she all but glomped the startled elf and started pulling off her inquisition armor in exchange for her Brotherhood version. He made a noise like something being stepped on and retreated to a soundtrack of laughter from Sera and the others as the Assassin buzzed around the cave until the sun started going down and set out alone.

"So, Inquisitor, what plans do you have for taking the keep?" Vivienne asks as they settle in for the evening and Bull actually snorts out loud.

"Plan's already started." He says, laying back against a rock.

"Oh? So the guard you sent will be scouting the fortress?" She directs at Mahanon and he shakes his head.

"No, we should have the keep by morning. If we don't then the resistance should be significantly weakened."

The circle mage has to process that and she doesn't look like she believes what he says, having never seen the Assassin at work, but she doesn't say anything. If that's what the Inquisitor wants then what say does she have in tactical matters.

The guards just look at each other and shrug before turning in.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

When they roll up to the gates of the keep the next morning there's a shiny new Inquisition flag flying from the ramparts and a blood covered Assassin waiting for them in the shaded courtyard beyond. A Cheshire grin on her face.

"Overachiever." Tracy drops her into the sand with a casual push but the assassin is too pleased with herself to lash out at her for it. Instead she lays there with her eyes closed humming what Brian recognizes as 'Snake Eater' until she drifts off for a nap.

They leave her there.

At least she's not snarling at them now.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

When their reinforcements arrive, Cassandra, Solas and Varric come with them. The three companions that had been there with them are glad to be returning to Skyhold even if the Inquisitor and his Guard are doomed to stay there.

Brian ends up following Knight Commander Rylen around. Cullen's second having been given charge of the Keep. He was learning the ropes of Medieval Military command as the Templars saw it and was happy to contribute where he was most familiar.

As it is, the moment they step across the newly constructed bridge, Hawke and Stroud melt out of the great blue yonder to meet them. They look rough, but then it's been a few months since they last saw civilization. The champion is happy enough to see the Inquisitor, not so much to see the guards. They'd hung toward the rear of the group and for the first time since landing in Thedas 'don't' giggle and stare.

Maybe they've finally been here long enough to become desensitized...

...or maybe Hawke is just so filthy that they don't recognize him under all the road dirt.

Could have been either one really.

Their report however, is a grim one.

The wardens cloistered in the tower have started any number of rituals and don't appear ready to stop anytime soon.

So they gear up, Hawke, Stroud, the Inquisitor and all of his current companions storm the old ritual tower and the Guards end up trailing in their wake. None of the Grey Wardens want to listen. They're all so convinced that they're going to die and it's just as terrible a loss of life when one knows the truth.

But it's Simon who cracks first.

He'd heard yet another Warden swearing that in death he'd do his duty when the Night guard lashed out, grabbing him by the chest plate and smashing his helmeted head into Brian's shield, making them both stagger.

"Shut. up." He growls. "You think you're dying. Ha! You hear a demon whispering in your head and you can't be bother fighting it any more, so you want to sacrifice yourself to call something else to fight for you. THAT'S NOT FIGHTING! THAT'S GIVING UP!" He's breathing hard and his hands are balled into fists as he stares down at the hapless warrior.

"You took an oath! Pick up your sword! If you can't face the demons and tell them no, then just kill yourself first and let the next Warden step up to the plate because you have failed all of us. You've forgotten what being a Grey Warden means and it's not this. Never this. I am ashamed that I ever wanted to be like you lot in the first place!"

He'd given an inarticulate roar of rage and smashed his fist into a crate, splintering the planks like they'd offended him before stomping off. The warden warriors left fighting around them faltered... and then the fighting stopped.

The guards looked over the ramparts only to realize that more than just these Wardens had heard him, and it seemed like they were finally ready to listen.

It's Brian who speaks up in the silence.

"If any of you want to do the right thing, then come with us." He says, voice stronger then he feels. "While the decision ultimately lies with the Inquisitor if you don't fight us now we'll take you into custody until this is over and when Corypheus is dead then you can go back to doing it right."

There are only so many remaining warriors and rouges. The mages aren't capable of stopping anymore and their arguments sound up from the courtyard, Clarel and Erimond the loudest voices, but now that they can hear what they're saying, see what they're doing...

The nearest Warden to Tracy doesn't look so good and she steps back just in time.

They end up protecting the few that listen, fending off demons until they and the inquisition forces are the only ones left breathing in the keep. The mages having fled. Their prisoners make for a pitiful bunch, but they put up no fight as they walk them out into the desert. The Inquisitor is grim when he sees them, but doesn't take back Brian's offer. The dozen or so men and women drag themselves to Griffin Wing Keep and resign themselves to their punishment.

Simon scoffs at the sight of them, but doesn't say anything else.

It seems no one is happy with scenario. No one at all.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

They end up back in Skyhold. With the Wardens once more in the wind they escort their prisoners home. The further they get from the nightmare, the less agitated they become. Not to say that they're better. The distance gives them more time to think and in doing so they need to confront their actions. It's a depressed bunch that eventually get put into the furthest tower in the rear bailey where there's no easy access to the gates.

Mahanon stands in the courtyard in front of the barn, wondering how he's going to bring them up to the 'other' warden.

He never did tell anyone about Blackwall, no Thom's confession in that future. He'd said the Dark Sister had been the one to convince him to tell him about it. The elf had checked the book and sure enough there was a question under the header 'Revelations'.

'Could you forgive a man for following orders?'

It was a question that applied to more than just Blackwall, as it turned out.

"Sometimes they need a reminder about what they should be. It was our peacekeepers hopes and dreams that had the most sway after all."

His morning guard appeared lounging against the wall of the barn. She never went far these days. After the night at the winter palace she spent more and more time in the corner of his vision. It wasn't unwelcome. She often helped him give voice to the things that bothered him, knowing all too well what he needed to hear when he was stuck. Some would consider that meddling, but she always gave him the last word and never complained once a decision was made.

Speaking of...

He braced himself and opened the door.

Blackwall was clearly waiting for him. He'd been bent over his workbench working on a rocking horse shaped like a griffin, but at this point it was more for busy work than any actual effort being put into the craft.

"Inquisitor." He greeted politely, his anxiety not quite hidden.

"I take it you've heard about our guests."

The man nodded his mood swinging a little closer to outrage.

"I was wondering why they're being locked up." He asks and the Elf sighs.

"They did attack us." He says tiredly. "But they surrendered to our forces. They did so with the understanding that they'd serve the inquisition in some capacity until Corypheus is no longer a threat and then they'd be sent on their way."

Blackwall looks a little less upset at that.

"But that's only part of the reason I am here. I'm sure you remember the Redcliffe incident? Well, When I vanished I wasn't just gone from the room, Dorian and I ended up displaced in time by about a year, and while we were there you revealed something about yourself."

He blanched under his beard but looked resigned.

"Am I to be clapped in irons then?" Mahanon shook his head, his response still surprising the man even though it should have been obvious that he wouldn't do away with him so quickly after keeping it under his hat for so long.

"No, in fact, I was planning to tell the Wardens the Truth."

Blackwall gave him an expression like a kicked puppy and the Inquisitor grunted.

"Not all of the Truth mind." He continued quickly. "I am aware of how you came to be called Blackwall. I'm also now aware of what the joining entails, and while it would likely have been a good fit for you to join them, right now it's much to risky. Besides, you have a much more hopeful view of the wardens, they could use some of that perspective right now, so I'll be putting you in charge of the ones here in Skyhold."

He hadn't been expecting that. He really hadn't been expecting that. Blackwall gave him an open mouthed stare and had to lean against his workbench before he fell over.
"Why?" He managed to ask and this one Mahanon didn't mind answering.

Could he forgive a man for following orders?

'Yes.'

"I don't know about what you think, but you've worked hard for your place here Thom." The man startled at the use of his real name. "Even though we kept you out of the field you've trained our people, bonded with the soldiers and done your level best to live up to your ideal of a Warden. As far as we're concerned, if you wanted to give up being a Warden and join the Inquisition as yourself we'd have arranged a pardon in a heartbeat. As it is, we decided early on that there was no point in dredging up your past. Warden Blackwall saw potential in you, even going as far as to give his life to prevent that potential from being snuffed out and that is not the act of someone who would condemn you to the block. The Wardens we brought back could use some of your dedication right now."

And so they introduced him to the others.

None of the wardens they were housing had been particularly high ranked, and what they told them held a great deal of the truth.

Blackwall wasn't the Blackwall. The real Blackwall was dead to darkspawn. The Inquisition hadn't found them until after the fact. Rather than dredge up bad memories they'd called him Blackwall and kept him safe until he got the opportunity to join them. They reminded them that not all wardens started with clean slates and now was probably the worst time to undergo the joining...

They took it surprisingly well.

And just like that Blackwall was in.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

And just like that the break is over.

News comes at last, scouts finally revealing the Wardens fall back position.

Adamant fortress.

This time it's not a case of who goes and who doesn't, it's all for one as everyone is dragged out of Skyhold for the event. Adamant is old and strong and has lasted as long as there's been Blights. It would take an army just to get in the door. There's a great shadow that looms darker than they've seen yet and the quartet of guards know the nightmare is ready to emerge.
The Inquisitor takes their grim countenances to mean that there's no time for silly antics in this place and his mood is a match for theirs as they get into position to breach the walls.

It goes about as well as it could and for a moment he almost has Clarel convinced before the corrupted dragon shows up at Erimond's call. Then as if to kick them while they're down the ramparts begin to crack and crumble and his group is falling, thrown into the Abyss below the fortress.

'-Use it.' He hears the distant shriek from the fortress above and reaches out to rip open the fade below. They plummet through and it snaps closed behind them.

He doesn't realize he's even stopped falling until he opens his eyes and looks down to see a murky green floor inches from his face.

"You're welcome." Hawke's voice is completely out of tone with the pounding in his chest as he drops the rest of the way to the ground. The human having let go of his ankle.

"Ooff."

Rolling over he finds Stroud standing on the side of a rock, further up above him Hawke is upside down in an arch. Solas is not far off, getting to his feet and he can already hear Varric complaining in the distance. Cassandra is caught in a pile of limbs on top of a pillar with two of his Honor Guard, neither of which look thrilled to be there.

"Where are we?" Stroud asks, looking rather uncertain as he walks to the bottom of the rock and steps off onto the same surface. "We were falling..."

"If this is the afterlife the chantry owes me. This looks nothing like the maker's bosom." That gets a high pitched burst of hysterical laughter from the night guard as the warrior trio get to their feet. His eyes are darting everywhere as he visibly tries to calm down.

"Oh god I never wanted to come here. This is Tracy's part."

"We're in a fade." Solas sounds entirely too pleased. "Look, the black city, close enough to touch."

They gathered, falling into a lose formation. He couldn't remember the last time he was here. He said as much when Stroud asked. The Evening guard suggested finding another rift to leave from and they set out. The Night guard still twitching every now and then as things moved in the distance. Then they turned a corner and Cassandra made a wounded noise.

There at the other end of the corridor formed by stones, was Devine Justinia.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

"Motherfucker!" Tracy shrieked as the fighting stopped around them.

Inquisition and Warden forces alike regarded her warily as he kicked a stray helmet and began to pace.

"Think think." She ignored the other members of the inner circle now stopping to watch her as she strayed precariously close to the edge of the crumbling walkway that had taken the Inquisitor. "There has to be a way to reach them."

Aura, who was staring over the edge up until that point just looked over her shoulder at her.

"Did you ever come to a conclusion about the Abnormality? You know it's a 'choice'." She put emphasis on the word that caught the attention of a few watching but neither woman seemed to care.

"Yes, yes, but I've been working towa-" the afternoon guard stopped abruptly and turned with eerie slowness to look at the Assassin. "...what did you call it?" The Assassin made a face that was one part weirded out to three parts confusion as she finally backed away from the edge and stopped just outside of arms reach.

"-an Abnormality? You know. Unknowable creature made from the human consciousness, horrifically dangerous and needs a rabbiting?"

"Why is there so much blue?" Cole asks when Tracy doesn't respond. Aura shrugs, ready to go wait at the exit when the Dreamer suddenly sprang to life and lunged at her. Aura had all of a second to panic before she was grabbed and Tracy laid one on her.

"That's it! Why didn't I think of that before! If you're there in person you're just you, but if you're a Dreamer...!" She let go of the assassin and wheeled around all but pushing people out of her way as she reversed course. "I have to get to the great hall!" She yelled and raced off, leaving half an army of confused, soldiers, companions and an Assassin who was animatedly spitting, retching and trying to wipe off her tongue with her hands.

If kisses were what she got for saying things then she wasn't going to talk to Tracy anymore.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

Meanwhile within the fade.

The Divine had turned out to be a Spirit of Faith. They'd spent what felt like hours running around the fade trying to get to the Rift in the main hall where Erimond had been performing yet more rituals with the controlled mages. Eventually though Faith had helped restore his memories of the day all this had started and while it wasn't anything he hadn't already guessed it did confirm that the Grey wardens had been involved from the beginning.

It was a blow for Stroud who had been hoping that it would be different. But even here the evidence was too strong to deny.

With that blow and the constant attacks by fearlings they were starting to feel the hours of fighting creeping up on them. Cassandra had gone quiet and Varric was trying to keep the mood high while the guards...

"Don't think about it, don't think about it..."

Still weren't taking it well.

Fearlings changed shapes rapidly near them, as if they didn't know what they wanted to be. The nightguard kept shouting that it was 'ridiculous' whenever one looked like it might be choosing a shape and it would revert to the wisp of smoke, held back by anxious laughter.

Solas had to be reminded more than once that he wasn't helping when he started asking about the 'spell'.

They left him in the back of the group and tried to spare him the sight as often as they could. None of them were sure they wanted to see what his fears could become.

The nightmare goaded them as they moved, stumbling across a graveyard of tombstones displaying their deepest fears that they were quick to leave behind them when a fearling caught up with them. They weren't fast enough to stop it forming and they were left looking at a knee high green creature with lamp-like yellow eyes, a brown robe and a fish-like tail.

They all blinked at it.

So far their little fears had been individual, each seeing their own interpretation of said fears. Mahanon himself saw Spiders.

Usually.

But this shape was visible to all of them.

It stared straight ahead as if it was a doll, before it made a creaking turn toward the soldier and took a slow, ponderous step.

Simon ran. He turned tail and fled toward the Nightmares domain without a word, only a shout of terror.

Brian was fast to push them onward.

"Move." He said, one eye on the creature. "Just move and keep moving."

Behind them it took another step and rather than stay there with it they moved to where Faith awaited them. One barrier later and they stood before the nightmare and it's more vocal aspect. Behind it lay their way out, the last remaining fade rift in Adamant.

The nightmare was gloating, telling them all about the plan to take over the world with an army of demons under Corypheus' control.

He'd been so focused on the enemy that he didn't see what was going on around them until the guards near on choked in surprise.

"Oh no."

The fade rippled and the Nightmare stopped talking to them.

"Who dares try to overwrite my domain?!" It demanded, larger aspect spinning away. The Inquisitor looked at Solas, their fade expert, who looked just as confused. Powers clashed above their heads as something tried breaching this part of the fade from the outside. The beast was getting more and more agitated as new shadowed constructs began to form in the crevices around them. Solas got as close as he dared to one and took a sharp breath.

"Dreams." He said finally giving them a clue. "These are dreams, a mage, no several mages must be working the fade nearby to create so many."

Behind him the Evening and Night guards looked at each other and had an epiphany of their own.

No... this wasn't multiple mages...

This was one determined fangirl.

Dreaming in the fade was an act of will. It was a delusion laid over a zone that was designed to convince a mind that it was real. When one believed something to be real in the fade then it was real because magic made it so.

And there wasn't another creature on Thedas with such singular focus, as a determined woman with an obsession and spirits of creativity and curiosity as teachers.

The energies struggled overhead until a fearling on the edge of the battlefield suddenly warped like sillyputty and the fade sort of snapped, leaving a perfectly formed small white bird with a crimson stain down it's chest.

"You think you're frightening?" Came a booming voice from somewhere unseen. "That Revenants and Spiders are the worst to be feared?"

The little white bird took flight, meandering aimlessly toward the nearest demon that lurked nearby and started to peck at it. The demon swatted it away but in the process of doing so hit it was enough force to be considered damaging.

"You hold no candle to to horrors we imagine to scare ourselves."

The red patch on the birds stomach bled to cover all the white parts and it bulged and split open, becoming a horrifying maw of teeth that encircled the demon and snapped shut.

The fade shuddered and all hell broke lose as the shadows from before solidified into people. Misshapen, with bulbous heads and rounded arms and feet, the one in front of them held a large sword, dressed in a suit with eyes that stared out from every surface and clearly looked like Aura.

"Oh boy. We need to go! Now!" Brian stamped down on his own fear long enough to grab the arms of those nearest and start running for the rift. The misshapen people made a corridor to safety as they raced the nightmares springing up around them. More white birds flew in a flock above their heads diving down to attack the revenant, taking chunks out of it when it dared to hit back. A giggling mass of slime oozed over the spider, seemingly unconcerned with the many fearlings that tried attacking it.

A million other events were taking place as the newcomer began to push the nightmare back, inch by inch. They saw the people standing in formation around Faith as they passed and the entire group was all but pushed through the rift.

"Close it! Close it! You don't want them getting out!"

The Inquisitor whipped his arm around and grabbed at the energies of the rift, it bucked against the anchor, fighting back almost as hard as the one at the breach before with a yell he slammed it shut.

Soldiers that had been cleaning the hall where the rift had been stopped and stared.

The group that had tumbled from the rift stared back.

No one was quite sure what had happened, the only sure thing about the event was that they'd escaped the nightmare and the raw fade alive.

"I need a drink." Varric finally voice their general thoughts aloud and everyone present seconded the motion.

They were very careful not to think about what they'd seen.

Some things were best not remembered at all.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

Back in the fade the battle still raged.

In her form as Ellana Lavellan Tracy watched as her imaginary forces hunted down the nightmare. The Inquisitor and his party had escaped, sealing the rift behind them but the abnormalities had utterly distracted the Demon General from noticing. Other fearlings had taken advantage of the chaos to grab for power, taking these new forms and attacking each other. A stronger spirit would consume weaker spirits, her mentor had once taught her. Like possessing humans they also possessed each other.

The Nightmare was growing smaller, helped along by a white bust with floating hands and a coat covered in musical notes that was conducting it's energy away. In the distance a pulsing black mountain of smiling corpses was gleefully rolling across the landscape, crushing spires of floating stone as it ate everything that moved. The Employees patrolled in groups around the edges of the Nightmares domain, pushing back or killing anything that tried to escape and in the middle of the mess her lovingly named 'Chad Squad' was ruining the Nightmares day.

"I never imagined seeing the creature defeated so."

Tracy looked away from the battle as Faith floated up to her side. She wasn't glowing quite as brightly as before, but she was clearly still in one piece as she settled on one side of her floating platform.

"Ah huh." Tracy made a noise from the back of her throat. "There's always a way." She says as she rocks on her heels. "The difference being that the Nightmare grew big on fears of the Blight. It wanted to be the biggest baddest fear around. But there's more than just the Blight. It may be scary here, but here is not the only place that exists." She waves a hand at the gloomy green sky in a grand sweeping gesture.

"My people didn't have to fear much. We reached a point where many of us never felt fear at all. We ended up creating new fears, new concepts of fear, to fill that gap. We did it because we enjoyed it." Faith clearly doesn't comprehend the differences, but Tracy doesn't mind, after all, Faith is alive. She hadn't expected to see her alive in the first place but the spirit had clearly been forgotten by the group in the midst of their flight.

Below them the fight was winding down.

The nightmare had all but been consumed by Melting Love and Porccubus had joined the fray, doing unspeakable things to the remnants as she made a gesture, directing an employee to the machine that blinked into existence below.

Most of these new fears couldn't be left here. Maybe a Punishing Bird or two would be fine, but the rest needed to be taken care of before she woke up. As the Backwards Clock wound up she felt a tug on her leggings and looked down.

There at her ankle, was a tiny adorable green creature that stared up at her with big yellow eyes. It wore a brown robe with a fishlike tail and held a lantern in one hand.

"You must have belonged to one of the others." She concluded as it continued to stare. The Afternoon guard crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her chin thoughtfully as the realm below was zapped with lightning, the creatures she'd imagined either vanishing or reverting back to what they'd once been as the clock erased all the evidence of the abnormalities. Employees vanished back into shadows and the former realm of the Nightmare was left devoid of life.

"Alright, you can come with." She decided, leaning down to pick the creature up. "I know an Assassin that would love you."

And with a turn of the heel they vanished from the Fade. Leaving nothing in their wake but a spirit of Faith and Silence.

________________________________________
—x—
________________________________________

Chapter Text

—x—

Truly there was nothing left in the domain of the nightmare.

Spirits peered in from the outside cautiously, all looking for signs that there may still be some fears lingering...

Silence was all they found.

Finally one older presence seeped into the area. Others pulled back either in fear or respect as it wondered the devastated landscape and climbed to the lone remaining peak where a platform had come to rest, bearing a lone spirit form.

"What happened here Faith?"

The spirit looked at the other and then back down.

"The nightmare was defeated, consumed by a greater fear, summoned by a power much stronger than I. They looked like an elf here, but they didn't feel quite right-"

"-like they were the right shape in the wrong body." The newcomer finished.

The two sat in silence and watched as more and more lesser spirits braved the edges of the domain, small transformations taking place as their influence began to consume the leftover scraps of power. A major change had occurred. Other spirits couldn't place where the changes were happening but it felt like history as they'd known it, or would know it, had been tilted entirely off course.

"Well, I must continue my investigation elsewhere." The older spirit stood.

"Very well, good luck Wisdom."

She nodded and left the former domain of the nightmare to its healing.

—x—

"Apology Accepted."

Aura reached out with grabby hands for the creature in Tracy's arms.

After she'd run off the Dreamer had run back and dragged her and Cole to act as lookouts while she decided to take a nap in the great hall of Adamant Fortress. Not long after there was a ruckus as the Inquisitor and his party rolled out of the rift and slammed it shut. Not an hour later Tracy had woken. The Grey Wardens had received the same deal as the prisoners they'd taken at the ritual tower. Service under careful watch until the crisis was over then they'd be let lose once more.

The Assassin hadn't been looking at her comrade when she'd left the fade but she'd heard Cole babble.

"-It was fear, but when it took a new shape it changed. No longer fear anymore, but a grudge. The resentment was stronger."

She turned, seeing the little green fish beast in her lap and immediately fell in love.

"-come here my widdle murder munchkin fwendoh." She cooed and picked it up. The Tonberry stared. Eyes unchanging before it brought up an arm and slashed down.

The knife did nothing.

"-oh and it's stabbing me! Ooh we are going to get along just fine you wait and see."

The creature looked at it's knife, experimentally drawing it back and forward over the armor on her gauntlet before abandoning the motion and staring at it's lantern. It gave a weak pulse but the woman just shrugged it off and started rocking it back and forward.

Barely a moment later it was asleep.

"-oh who's a good murder baby? You are, yes you are!"

Aura's whispers freaked the passing soldiers out while Tracy and Cole left to find the Dreamer something to eat.

She was right though. The Assassin did love it.

—x—

It was just as well that no one saw Aura's new pet on the way back to Skyhold.

They arrived back at the head of a column of their soldiers and the wardens. The Calling had died with the Nightmare and like the ones before they had fallen into depression in response. They stayed for a day before Josephine had a new place prepared. It was a small fort that was close enough that they could monitor the wardens, but far enough away that if they ended up being controlled once more then they wouldn't threaten their home base.

They weren't going alone though.

With most of the senior leadership either dead or complicit in Clarel's plans there was technically no leader among them. No one that is except for Stroud. He'd survived the fade, and so had Hawke, though neither could even begin to guess how it had happened. The mages Solas had suspected of rescuing them hadn't been found although Mahanon had eyeballed his guards like he knew something the others didn't.

So Stroud was their new Commander and alongside him was Blackwall. Stroud had been briefed the same way the other wardens had and with their own glowing recommendations they'd also tabled his past for later and welcomed him as a recruit, though of course, he wasn't going to actually go through the Joining. Not yet anyway.

Before he'd left Blackwall had come to find the Inquisitor and asked him to keep an eye out for his old crew. He'd heard rumors that someone had found him, but it might have just been one of his people and though they'd done the same horrible things they'd just been following orders as well...

Mahanon had agreed to look into it. Making a note for Josephine and the man had left happy.

—x—

Simon stood on the battlements overlooking the Warden Encampment.

He'd been grumpy and withdrawn since leaving the fade. On a screen the fade was different. Creepy in a way that scary things are supposed to be, distant and well... faded. But in reality it had been nerve wracking to the extreme. In the Nightmares domain there had been a low pulse that made one teeth ache and heart race. Anxiety had nipped at the back of his mind and every breath had brought reminders.

The sheer discomfort had only been one aspect of the experience. His fearlings had been Boggarts, he'd made the connection to the fictional closet dweller almost right away and given how he couldn't for the life of him imagine what would scare him most... a fear that you couldn't see until it came out of the box was appropriate.

Schrödinger's Monster.

It had him shouting the counter spell every other minute in the hopes that he'd never have to see. Then one had snuck up on them and transformed before he'd noticed it was there and he'd been struck blind to anything else as he'd legged it.

As far as little fears go, a Tonberry was on the higher end. Like a shambling zombie it was slow, but if it had enough reason, if it focused on you...

He was just glad it hadn't become the monster from 'It Follows'.

Then again the requirements for that...

He shuddered as soft footsteps sounded from below and a puff of gold fabric climbed out of the manhole leading up from the tower.

"There you are!" Josephine brushed off her silks and trotted across the rooftop with ladylike steps. "I asked one of your fellow guardsmen of where to find you..." she caught a look at his face and her expression fell. "... and you do not look pleased." She fluttered briefly. "I suppose it can wait until tomorrow." She demurred and was already half turned to leave when he reached out to stop her.

"Wait..." he looked at where his fingers where just brushing her sleeve and dropped his arm sheepishly. "Oh... it's alright if you stay." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm just... a little distracted." The ambassador gave him an assessing look before returning to lean against the wall and looking down.

"Perhaps I can listen then? I do believe it would be my turn to return the favor?" She suggested.

He smiled back, looking about as tired as he felt and let his gaze wonder back out to the camp once more.

"When I was young I was, in fact very sickly." He referred back to Aura's taunting all that time ago on the journey to Skyhold. "I was born with an illness that didn't become obvious until I was older. It made me weak, too weak to function, I was going to die and there was nearly nothing anyone could do about it."

"Oh." Josephine was equal parts sympathetic and confused. "But clearly something had changed." She offered waving to all of him. He let out a huff.

"Indeed." He said dryly. "But before that, the treatment wasn't available in my homeland. I started to look for other ways to spend my final years, it lead to learning to read and consuming literature. In those stories I learned of... well, them." He waved down at the camp. "Grey Wardens only have approximately thirty years to live after the joining is performed. It's not something they share, in fact, it's a secret." He held his fingers to his lips to emphasize the point and the Antivan woman indicated her own silence in return.

"It's no secret that a lot of them didn't start out all noble either. But they, like me were dying, and rather than waste away they give their remaining years to keep the Darkspawn down. I guess I sympathized with them rather strongly as a result."

He could still remember playing Origins. It had, quite frankly, been his favorite of the series for a reason. He'd half hoped that maybe his Warden had been the one, but it clearly wasn't to be. It hadn't been Aura's either... technically, even though it had been an Elissa Cousland that married Alistair like her games many of the choices had been quite different, not that the Assassin had ever indicated she minded.

"And to meet them at such a time..." Josie murmured and he nodded.

"They say you should never meet your Heroes." He agreed. "If you never meet them you never have to be disappointed when they fail to live up to your expectations." Beside him the woman tutted and linked his arm with hers.

"Now, I don't know about Heroes, but as I've heard it maybe they weren't yours so much as you were theirs." She suggested. "Your words did convince them to lay down their arms and see reason."

The though struck him rather hard as he stared into the distance and finally smiled. A proper smile.

"You know, I kinda like that idea." He looked at her. "You seem to have a talent for knowing just what to say." He complimented and she laughed behind her hand.

"Well, you realize, it is my job." He grinned sheepishly at that and laughed, feeling much lighter than before.

—x—

With the Wardens squared away the Inquisitor set his eyes on their next goal.

Samson.

The leader of the red templars had been busy all across southern Orlais. With red lyrium now appearing in all kinds of places they were hard pressed to keep track of the spread. It had become a new priority to reduce their supply and clean up what they could before it got any worse.

As such they were heading to Emprise du Lion.

Aura crouched by the war table as the advisors plotted and planned, one hand on the Tonberry while the other snaked out to carefully nudge markers into positions that would get things noticed faster. Leliana was watching her with narrowed eyes while the others barely paid her any mind. They were quite used to her being there now, enough so that she no longer had to use stealth to sneak in behind Mahanon.

Hawke appeared at their meeting briefly.

He'd edged around her and mentioned going to sort out some details back in Kirkwall. The Inquisitor had invited him to stay longer and now that he wasn't being followed by giggling guardsmen he wasn't entirely against the idea. He did suggest however that his own friends might show up from time to time should the need arise, given that Cassandra had been defused and the coast was clear.

The meeting had ended on a high note all things considered... 'things' being the hoarfrost waiting down the mountain from them.

Still, as far as the Assassin was concerned, being cold as Shiva's tits was a definite improvement over hot as Ifrit's balls.

—x—

"Why do we even have to be here?"

Tracy complained bitterly as they walked into Sarnia on the Inquisitor's coattails. There was activity all around them as Inquisition soldiers and agents came out in force. The weather was miserable, but the Templar presence was even more so. Their operations had slowly been pushed back to this place and they would need to clear it if they wanted to deal any sort of decisive blow.

"-they like it here, cold makes the red less angry."

Cole was in fine form as they left the town to their scouts and Celene's former Champion. The spirit boy had been remarkably less agitated in demanding help not to be controlled. He'd outright mentioned the amulets used by the Riviani and warned them to find two. Apparently he'd been more confident in peeking lately it seemed, and not just on the guards either.

"If I had to suffer the Desert then you can suffer the cold." Aura returned Tracy's complaint. "Besides. Loot."

"Oh yeah." They did have some secret loot to find in this place after all.

"And dragons." Simon chipped in and Brian, who'd been looking a little glum himself, perked up.

"Sweet."

Still, Emprise du Lion was a broken place. The sheer suffering contained within the mountainside zone was legendary in scope. From the Grey Warden stronghold that wasn't quite holding back darkspawn, to the fortress swarming with templars atop the hill where they knew Imshael was waiting. All of it would be even more terrifying without half an army at their backs.

The mines were the worst.

Villagers were locked in cages, sold by Sarnia's mayor. The earlier, more unfortunate ones had already turned to lyrium while the newer more recently captured youths still had a hope of being saved. They opened the cages, Cole tagging along with them to pick the locks. They rescued who they could and killed the red templars that got in the way as they veered into an ice cave and toward an out of the way corner of the ruins.

"Well. Here it is." Tracy pressed against the lone intact wall embedded in the ice and it was only because she knew it was there that she didn't fall on her face. The illusion parted and one by one they went through. The walk down the stairs was quick and it opened out onto a wide platform that just about floated over the yawning chasm that could possibly lead to a deep road.

"Yoink." Brian's chain hook looped around the chest and he pulled it closer rather than risk standing on the platform to open it.

And there in the box, nestled in old velvet, was the Ardent Blossom.

"I'm going to make the Inquisitor into a fairy princess." Aura declared abruptly as they saw it and although Tracy itched to keep it, the thought was too funny not to agree... gods only knew they needed a laugh after how shitty this place had been.

—x—

It's a few days later when they're ready to take the keep. Templars have been making probing attacks more often and if they wait any longer in camp they'd lose their advantage. Aura is hesitant to go in. She lingers near the camp and climbs the tower instead, saying she'd help from afar. Tracy stays with her, deciding to play spotter.

Brian however...

Is gleeful as he's given a unit to secure the keep, he's pleased to be in charge and had been drilling with the unit to help them work together since.

Mahanon is wearing the Ardent blossom and suffering the laughter from Sera and Dorian as he prepares for the siege. When Aura managed to catch him that morning he hadn't been entirely awake, he'd let her weave his hair between the flowers before he'd realized what it was she was doing and now he couldn't get it out without a second pair of hands and an extra set of eyes, otherwise he'd end up with no hair and no one was willing to do so. He'd ended up giving a long suffering sigh and eventually just started to own it.

The peanut gallery was amused at least.

The Book had had a few very specific warnings about the so called 'choice spirit'. Imshael was old. Old and set in his ways. Even for a spirit he was particularly stable in the real world and being considered a Forbidden One was probably a part of that.

There was no good in him and no reason to keep him alive.

'Sometimes the only choice you need to make, is the one to kill it.'

It would serve the bastard right.

The fighting lasted into the night and by morning the Inquisition's colors flew above the remnants of the Demons garden.

—x—

By the time the region is clear enough for builders they have the rest of what they need to track Sampson. Cullen turns up with the intent to find his base personally. And they march off to the shrine of Dumat. The Guards have their own issues though.

Voldemort is watching them.

They're honestly surprised that it's taken him this long to start getting wary. There are elves all over the place. Everywhere they turn there's an elf and it's as annoying as it is amusing.

Worse still they're giving Aura odd looks. It's a distinct change to how they look at the others. Then again, she's been the most 'overtly' strange of them. She hasn't tried fitting in at all and for whatever reason they're fascinated in the same kind of way one stares at train wrecks.

With Imshael gone they can feel the old presence that they'd felt on the Exalted Plains roll into the area, poking around for scraps.

Tracy however, is the one that actually gets for first clue to what that is.

She's dreaming in her own dreams for once when she gets what she can only describe as a knock. The local fade rings like a bell breifly, giving her just enough time to slide a disguise over her skin before she's staring dumbfounded at a familiar bulbous figure that glows with equally familiar golden light.

"Greetings Dreamer."

"Whut?" She asks, dumbfounded as her dream crashes to blue.

The gold featureless employee stares at the vacant blue plane in what feels like polite disinterest as she waits for her to respond properly.

It takes a while.

"Wha... Faith?"

The glowing woman settles onto a chair that appears nearby, eyes still soaking in the environment as a new scene is constructed in the space. They're seated at a tea table in a library, it's bright and airy and the window next to them looks out onto the Emerald Graves. It's a copy of one of the Villa houses that dot the area, brightened up and cleared of the the ghosts that haunted it. The spirit is very interested in the process as Tracy settles into the chair across and picks up a drink that is tea but isn't.

She hasn't quite got the hang of dreaming the day to day details yet. The books on the shelves still only read a blur when you pull them down, but being able to dream with so much clarity after effectively starting from nothing... it is quite impressive.

The Afternoon Guard currently appearing as an Elf took a deep fortifying breath, then made herself look.

"So why this shape?" She asks outright and Faith looks down at herself.

"It has great Faith placed in it." She responded and the scene 'hiccups' then settles. "You are not the only one who's dream I have touched this evening. I sought the Inquisitor, his anchor is a light that burns brightly in the fade and I used it to navigate." Tracy understands, right now the anchor is a little green star on the horizon just above the tree line. If she follows it it will take her right to the inquisitor and she generally leaves his dreams private, only following to watch when Voldemort goes poking around for secrets.

"So you wondered into his dreams and ended up in that form...?" She's still not sure how it happened. With some effort Faith managed to smooth herself out into her usual big hatted shape and seemed to relax.

"It was his protector, his mark attracts friend and foe alike here and while the presence of such powerful dreamers does deter most, some do get through. I believe witnessing this shape defeating the nightmare has given it shape in his dreams to guard him in his sleep. He believes it is special and it resonates powerfully. Justinia believed just as powerfully in the maker. It seems like he has chosen that warrior as a manifestation of his."

Tracy blinked again, hard.

Then she looked down at the cup in her hands and it's contents changed to a much more recent memory of the Dwarven ale someone in the Herald's Rest had dared her to drink. Downing it in one go she set the teacup down with a very final sort of click then got to her feet. She didn't have to move as she towed Faith back toward the Inquisitor's dream. They peeked in and the usual mishmash of confused dream images that where fairly typical of non mages stared back at them, but there in the middle, set like a stone against the chaos was the Employee Aura with a big sword and the many eyes on her suit.

It stood before the dream manifestation of the Inquisitor who wasn't actually conscious here, but his mark seemed to force a dreaming body into being. The Employee wasn't a spirit, it was a subconscious defense that protected his mind in the fade. She'd rescued them before and with how close they'd become it wasn't really all that surprising in hindsight. Though it did make her wonder if it would still be an employee if she had sent one with a different shape?

It noticed them and gave a solemn nod that the visitors returned before Tracy backed out of the dream. When she reformed the tea table in the Villa the green star was significantly closer on the horizon indicating they hadn't moved far.

"That... is an interesting development." She said at last.

Faith hummed and examined the teacup.

"But that was not why I sought you out." The spirit continued. "After your battle with the nightmare, that part of the fade has been changed. New spirits have come to occupy the area. It will heal in time, but it has been noticed. A very old spirit of Wisdom has been asking after the one or ones who worked against the demon."

Tracy blinked at her and then started to laugh.

"Of course." She cheered quietly. As much as this news was ... well, new, it wasn't entirely unexpected. They had spared Wisdom from having to be reconstituted from her scattered parts after the summoning incident. So of course Voldemort would turn to her to investigate things on his behalf. What was unexpected was the warning from Faith. She didn't need to come all this way to tell them, but then again she'd stayed in the Nightmares domain to help them and it's victims when she could have easily left that part of the fade. So Tracy skipped the speculation and went right to the question.

"So why would you come to warn us?"

The spirit's look was for the most part unreadable before she floated away from her seat and came to hold the disguised human's face in her hands.

"Because you don't know that what you're doing is right. You are conflicted here." She moved one hand over her heart. "But you have faith that everything will turn out as it should in the end. You are unwavering in that belief. I am a spirit of Faith. I was ready to sacrifice myself to free the Inquisitor of the Nightmare, but you changed it. Now something new stands in that space, a budding faith in the Inquisition and in your friend. I wish to see what will become of it."

Tracy stared a little longer and held her breath as she pulled back from Faith's grasp and got to her feet.

She only made it a few steps away before she started laughing.

The details of the scene blurred once again until Faith took hold of it and watched her roll around howling, mildly bemused.

"Sh-she...ahahahahahaha!"

When she wakes she's still giggling.

—x—

When Corypheus had set up his base of operations he had chosen an old temple of Dumat in Northen Orlais.

As far as anyone else knew, there was no significance to the decision. He'd just chosen an old ruin and taken it over like any normal scavenger.

What the guards did know was that it had ALL the significance.

Dorian wouldn't find it until Josephine ordered his book but Corypheus had been one of the high priests of Tevinter's old gods, and more specifically that of Dumat. It figured that even having decided to supersede his God's Authority he still took comfort in the signs and symbols of his faith.

It made Tracy giggle briefly at the thought as they rode into the scout camp set up nearby.

"We're too late." Cullen despaired at seeing half of the temple on fire.

They left the horses and went on foot.

The Inquisitor and his team went first. It was Bull, Dorian and Cole at the moment. They mowed through the remaining forces of Red Templars. It was only a token force. Samson had already scorched the earth behind him.

The guards hung back with Cullen for a great deal of the fighting. Gods only knew the Commander didn't look well. There was red Lyrium everywhere and more than once Brian would reach out to clap his shoulder to shake him out of his thoughts.

But of course the most devastating thing hadn't been the loss of Samson.

It was his tranquil friend waiting at the end of the gauntlet of troops waiting to die.

Cullen recognised him and looked rather more distraught.

"He doesn't look well, I'll send for the healers." The commander said, infinitely more gentle than he'd been in the entire day. The Tranquil however appeared to dissagree with that as he shook his head.

"That would be a waste, Knight-Captain Cullen." He told them in the same monotone calm of all Tranquil. "I drank my entire supply of blightcap essence, it will not be long now." Cullen looked horrified and none of them were sure if it was because of the use of his former title or the man's impending death.

"We only wanted to ask questions, Maddox." Came the Inquisitor's quiet insistence.

"Yes." Came the acknowledgement. "That is what I could not allow. I destroyed the camp with fire. We all agreed it was best. Our deaths ensured Samson had time to escape." The information was given in calm tones, but it had no effect against the growing horror on the ex-templars face.

"You threw your lives away? For Samson? Why?" He asked, genuinely distressed.

The Tranquil stared at him and the guards figured that if he'd been able to emote he'd be saying the next part very differently.

"J- Samson-" He stumbled on the name. "-save me even before he needed me. He gave me purpose again. I ... wanted to... help..."

He stopped talking, breathing becoming laboured. Cullen couldn't bear to look at him and stepped away, pulling the others with him as they discussed searching the camp again for anything the fire had missed.

The guards had discussed what they'd do if they made it in time but that was before they learned how fast the poison worked and now...

"Cole, help me please?" Aura moved forward as the rogue propped up the slumped man. She had a look on her face, like she was focusing very hard before they realised she was trying to communicate silently with the spirit. Together they did something and the Assassin reached out to touch the starburst on the Tranquil's forehead...

'Least we can do is let the man die free.'

The Inquisitor's head snapped around.

...And when her hand pulled away he was staring at her, eyes wide and tears flooding down his cheeks.

Behind them Dorian sucked in a hard breath.

"Did she jus- oww kaffas man!" Simon dug a elbow into the vint's side, cutting him off before he could give it away. It figured that the mage would notice the restored connection at the last second.

Still, said connection didn't stop the poison from killing Maddox but it would have to do as they picked up their forces and went home.

And if Dorian gave Aura and Cole funny looks the whole way home no one said anything about it.

—x—

Their time at the temple hadn't been a complete loss though. They found the tools that had been used to make the armor of Red Lyrium that Samson wore and salvaged a half singed journal. Maddox really had been a genius. But lucky for them they had their own. With enough time Dagna would crack the method from the tools alone and they'd have a new advantage.

"What I don't get is why he kept on referring to Samson by a different name." Dagna complained to the Inquisitor one evening when they'd gone to check on her. She pointed out where she'd circled each new instance of a different one.

'John.'

"Wasn't he supposed to be Raleigh Samson?" Tracy asked miming using a controller. Brian nodded confirmation.

"Yeah he used to be the Commander's roommate in Kirkwall."

"Then why would Maddox be calling him John?"

It dawned on Simon first.

"What if... and it's just a theory... what if he wasn't actually Samson?"

"Then who was he?" And wasn't that a good question. It didn't require much prompting to have the Inquisitor check The Book and not even their future selves had had any idea.

"It think we need to investigate." Brian suggested. Simon had volunteered to see what he could find in Maddox's notes and within a single reading a phrase jumped out at him.

'- something about John's unusual biology renders him immune to the extra effects of the Red Lyrium...'

He had a creeping suspicion that this phrase was the key and with an escort of scouts and a cover from Josephine he left Skyhold to go look for answers in the one place he might actually find something.

Kirkwall.

—x—

With Simon gone the three remaining guards felt like they were missing a limb. They hadn't spent all that long apart from each other since they'd landed in haven and it was more than a little strange to have the fourth seat at their usual table empty...

At least until Aura set the Tonberry down in his place.

She had been very careful with her new murder baby for a number of reasons. The first of which was that it was technically a fear demon. Sure it had only been a demon of little fears but it was still considered one. However according to Cole, it was stuck. It had taken on the shape because Simon had feared it, but Tonberry weren't creatures of fear.

They were creatures of weaponized Resentment.

The fear demon had had it's nature changed so suddenly that it was horribly confused. It expected it's attacks to work because it was accustomed to inflicting fear. But Aura had absolutely no fear. She was utterly fearless about picking it up and manipulating it that it couldn't tangibly hurt her.

Simon on the other hand could still be effected, but even then the attacks were weak.

But even with the failure of utilizing fear, it was slowly learning about it's new powers. It often stared at the lamp, all but communing with the blue or violet flame it held depending on the day, but if they took their eyes off it for a moment well...

It would start following people.

With slow ponderous steps it would wonder away from them, careful not to step on the hem of it's robe. One time it had slipped away and they hadn't noticed it soon enough, it had followed one of the visiting nobles all the way out into the gardens and when it had caught up...

*doink!*

The noble hadn't been hurt too badly, but when they'd poked the inquisitor into having the noble looked into they'd found plenty of reason for someone to resent him.

They certainly weren't allowed to let him get anywhere within sensing range of the prison. The Inquisition had enough to deal with without having to explain why their prisoners were dying.

In any case the grinding gears of fate wouldn't let them mope for long. Tracy was in the gardens with Alim and Kieran when Morrigan came through with the Inquisitor. She spied them headed toward a storage room in one corner and knew it was time for 'that' to happen. So she left the boys to their games and ventured off after them. Aura bumped her in the shoulder as she slipped through the door and stood on the Inquisitor's other flank.

She must have also been getting good at being at least a little bit sneaky because Morrigan near jumped out of her skin when she noticed her standing there behind the elf.

Tracy just gave her a little happy finger wave that made the witch looked strained.

That said they followed her through her Eluvian and into The Crossroads.

Although Morrigan had gone first, she was in fact the last to exit. Tracy had come out before the Inquisitor, then Aura had emerged after him and the afternoon guard swore she felt the Fade around them shudder. Then finally Morrigan emerged, seemingly oblivious to the byplay of magic that happened ahead as she made her grand introduction.

"Can you see it?" Tracy elbowed Aura as the other two wondered away from the Eluvian, voice echoing in the empty hollow of absolute silence. She of course, meant the colourful and vibrant world that the elves were rumored to see. Mahanon was circling the paths ahead still discussing the topic with the Witch of the Wilds.

Aura just shook her head.

"No. I'm not uncomfortable like it said we'd be. But I can't see the extra color, this place is... lost. Dead." Now that she remembered this was a very different part to the place where they'd visit later. It was supposed to be uncomfortable for people of other species here, it was a place built by elves for elves after all. But aside from seeing in monochrome and the dead silence it seemed perfectly fine.

Just grey.

Grey and sad.

They wondered around, poking into the corners. There were small signs of times long past in the hollows between sparse greenery and structures of stone. The roads that didn't exist in the overworld existed here and it inexplicably reminded Tracy of venturing through the nether.

At least things weren't on fire here...

Although it did make her wonder if a spirit of some sort could stand in for a ghast...

She shuddered and Aura made a questioning noise.

"Just spooked myself." Was all Tracy said of it.

Eventually they went back to Skyhold, coming out again in more or less the same order and Tracy returned to the garden to find Sera crouched next to Alim behind the stone railing that circled the space with a guiltily interested Kieran lingering behind them.

They were giggling.

Across from them a noblewoman was screeching in alarm as a lizard crawled out of her dress and another masked gentleman was trying to pry her off his cloak as she all but crawled up his back to get away.

"See, that's how it's done." Sera was saying. "Be a stuffy butthead and get Lizards." Alim was sniggering and Tracy stopped to watch. She knew what Sera was doing. The Lady Mai Balsitch was playing the mad fairy godmother so she could keep an eye on him. It was almost sweet of her, if she wasn't teaching her perfectly well behaved boy how to embrace his inner hellion.

Tracy had wanted to do that herself and now she had to be the adult.

"Ahem." She started and they all whipped around. Sera noted her pointed look, giggled madly and then skipped off, leaving her with two shamefaced little boys.

"You know. I was going to cook again, but I suppose she won't be joining us." She mused lightly and Alim's guilty look slid right off his face.

"Cookies?" He asked hopefully. Tracy made a show of looking thoughtful and leaned down to whisper to them both instead.

"No. Lets make pies. Do you think Sera would like a cream filled one?"

The boys both lit up at the prospect of sweets and never mind how that pie was getting delivered.

—x—

The things they'd put aside while fighting the Adamant campaign seemed to have reached critical mass in the time since. The Inquisitor was dragged too and fro by his companions as they brought him old problems and new trouble.

One such thing was Bull and the Qun.

They drew straws and Brian and Aura went to the storm coast with them. The chargers were in high spirits, even if Bull wasn't. By this point Brian was almost certain he'd broken a great deal of his conditioning from the Qun. Thing about indoctrination was that after a while, the more time spent away from their influence the harder it got to maintain. It broke down and eventually, the victims either got help... or they snapped.

It wasn't fun to think about.

But as long as the Chargers were with him he'd be fine, and both guards had no doubt that Bull would call them back. As such they hadn't really planned to do much. Mahanon knew what to do and they'd already said their piece in The Book.

'Nothing good ever comes of the Qun.'

So they tagged along.

Gatt however gave them the side eye when they rolled up behind the Inquisitor. There was an undercurrent of something like aggression throughout their entire conversation and when they lit the flare and stood on the cliff he only got more so as Bull blew the horn.

"There are too many down there, they'll lose the Warship." Bull stated almost knowingly, but Mahanon turned instead to Aura.

"Care to make a repeat of Haven?" He asked her and Gatt looked at the group in confusion as The Morning Guard lit up.

In less than a second she had her bow off her back. A jab to the solid section in the middle had it transforming from a particularly dense bow into what resembled a makeshift Ballista.

A normal bow would never make the distance, it had been proven over and over again. But this device had been the secret to it's power and until now, no one outside of the guard had seen it in person. It still required a great deal of brute strength to wield though.

The agitated agent of the Qun just looked flabbergasted as Brian stepped up on the edge of the cliff one hand shielding his eyes from the sun as they did what they'd done in the rain on their first trip to the Storm Coast.

"Firing!" Aura singsonged and released it.

The Tevinter Mages on the beach lost their cohesion pretty damn quickly when the one closest to the shoreline was pinned through by an arrow that had come down out of virtually nowhere.

The Qun Warship went swanning out of the bay a few minutes later, uncontested.

And the Inquisitor just stared down the other elf, smug.

—x—

In the time they took to get back Cassandra had discovered the location of the seekers. Or at least a possible place.

This time it was Tracy and Brian who went with them. Aura drew the short straw this time but they both suspected that it would possibly be the last time the Inquisitor went anywhere without her. He kept half turning to look for her every time they got into a fight and while they were still using words on Lord Seeker Lucius his ears would twitch.

But while the Inquisitor was clearly more agitated, Cassandra looked oddly settled and Tracy gave Brian the stink eye after one too many lingering glances.

Of course it may have been for the best that the Assassin wasn't there for the trip home when Cassandra read the book from cover to cover and became distressed about the Tranquil.

And then got even more so when the Inquisitor let slip that he'd already seen the rite reversed.

And Dorian confirmed it.

Cassandra looked like she didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry at the news and eventually went back to her tent with a disgusted noise. What she was really upset at they couldn't quite say but by morning (and after a rather long discussion with the Inquisitor) she was back to her rather more composed self.

She was determined to rebuild the Seekers but this time she'd do it right.

—x—

Varric was talking to a dwarf woman when they got back, Aura hovering in the shadows nearby holding the Tonberry who was trying to crawl out of her arms, its knife flailing enthusiastically in their direction.

"Oof." Brian made a noise of understanding and washed his hands of the entire ordeal as he followed Cassandra to the sparing yard to help her 'expend some energy' as it were.

Tracy lingered and resigned herself to going back out into the wilds again. However the group going toward Redcliffe turned out to be much larger. Cole had been flitting around since Adamant half grumpy-half pleased and they honestly hadn't thought much of it till he'd asked the Inquisitor to find three Rivaini Amulets of the Unbound.

The Inquisitor had been mildly bemused, having already seen the request in the book for two. As if he could hear the silent question though Cole spoke.

"-unexpected. The boy and the friend they knew. The light in the fade was different, they hadn't expected her to keep helping them."

"Ah, Faith." Aura summarized for him and it was enough said, though it had revealed that Cole was reading more of them than anticipated. It supposed that their desire for escapism and writing stories to work through their issues also counted as something connected to their 'hurt'.

The spirit was reading their fictional headcannon.

They were such terrible influences.

Additionally, a letter had arrived for Dorian.

Via Mother Giselle.

The Tevinter mage hadn't been the least bit pleased with the reminder of his past and had sulked before giving an annoyed "Lets get this over with." Before rocking up at the stables in the morning with Bull in tow.

So the party left late that morning, the Inquisitor merely throwing up his hands and telling them to all get on a horse. While he'd been listening to Solas and Varric argue over Cole, Aura had put the Ardent Blossom in his hair again and he was more than a little annoyed even if the assassin was unrepentant.

Still they hit the Hinterlands and split up. Varric, Bull and Solas going to Valammar to deal with the Red Lyrium supply. Aura followed behind them and it was clear that Varric had been bracing himself for this because he uttered the words from more than a few months ago.

"How did Corypheus find out about the Red Lyrium Bianca?"

When she answered he let out an aggrieved sigh and stomped off, leaving the old flame with the Inquisitor.

Whom she promptly turned around and threatened.

*Doink*

The Dwarf went down with a scream.

"Oh? How did you get here?" The elf just reached down and picked up the Tonberry who was clearly not leashed for once. It gave a token attempt at saber rattling with its knife as he nudged the Dwarf with his foot.

"Oh, you're fine, get up." He told her, stepping back when she rolled over to stare at him. "Though I rather suspect that this was the most mild response I've seen to a threat thus far."

"That was mild?" Bianca Davri asked, eyeing the Tonberry like it was about to leap at her face. She was mostly unharmed but she'd seen her life flash before her eyes and given that she had no idea what the creature did it may have not been voluntary. Mahanon hummed.

"Well, yes. My bodyguard's are rather protective. They don't take threats well you know. I suspect the only reason you're even still alive is that your death would break Varric's heart and they like him too."

It was a much more wary Dwarf tinker that left them on the Redcliffe road.

—x—

In Redcliffe Varric distracted himself from his own distress by getting into an argument with Solas over Cole.

To be a spirit? Or not to be a spirit. That was the question.

Aura sniggered when Tracy voiced that thought.

Still Cole didn't so much fly off the handle when he saw the ex-templar, as he did march with intent. He'd been forewarned after all and the Templar didn't have time to consider who was approaching and run. Cole snagged his arm and dragged him over to the Inquisitor, stopping the argument that was still ongoing between the other elf and the dwarf.

"This man killed my brother." He stated and like a record scratch everything stopped.

"Whu?"

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"What the?"

"Huh?"

"*groan*."

They all looked at Aura for that last one. She had her face in her hands, shaking her head.

"Look! I don't even know you!" The man was starting to panic and Cole shook him more gently than he might of when he was more confused.

"You killed him, you locked him in a dungeon in the spire and you forgot and he died in the dark." The Templar seemed to realize what was coming as Cole continued. "A broken body, bloody, banged on the stone cell, guts gripping in the dark dank, a captured apostate." He heaved a breath, answering questions in a conversation that wasn't happening now but had happened many times before. "They threw him into the dungeon in the Spire at Val Royeaux. They forgot about him. He starved to death."

Varric couldn't meet his eyes, Solas wasn't all that calm either though his face could have been carved from stone.

"I came through to help." Cole admitted. "...and I couldn't. So I became him. Cole." The ex-templar clearly remembered now, going to his knees. He didn't bother to try getting up as the spirit finally let go.

"But I don't hate him." The conversation underwent tonnal whiplash that left them confused as he stepped back. "They made you drown kittens. To make you feel guilty like they did. They hurt you so they wouldn't be alone."

Neither Solas nor Varric seemed to know what to say to that. In fact the topic had clearly janked sideways into something completely different from helping Cole settle himself into a shape. Cole looked up at the Inquisitor.

"Can we help him? I want to help him your way, so he can help as well."

Mahanon was almost indulgent as he helped the man to his feet and pulled him away to talk quietly. Cole just looked pleased with himself as he held out a hand to Solas for the amulet. The elf charged it and placed it in his palm, making it flicker blue momentarily before it faded to a dull hum, clearly now operational.

"Cole... you said the man killed your brother?" The mage questioned in clear confusion. The spirit, now far more calm than before looked up from his new necklace and got a distant look on his face.

"-it was a story. Told the same way, told over and over again. Why did there only have to be two choices? Why couldn't there be others? I liked to story where the apostate lived and they could stay together instead of taking his place. They called him the boy who held his brother's ghost."

Solas clearly didn't understand. Varric, from the viewpoint of a writer at least understood that Cole had somehow found stories about himself that he had used to... well, broaden his perspective and Tracy finally caught on to what he was talking about.

"You've been reading them." She said, only a little bit horrified. Cole just tipped his head to the side and began to quote something in broken Elvhen that had Tracy covering her face in mortification.

Solas was gaping, his ears burning red, listening in disbelief as the innocent seeming Compassion just spoke what amounted to pornographic filth in his native language.

Neither managed to recover before Cole wondered over to where Aura stood and stopped before her.

She smiled at him and gave him headpats.

Once again it could be said.

The Assassin was a terrible, terrible influence.

—x—

Chapter Text

—x—

By the time they got home to Skyhold many of the people who went with them were ready to forget the trip had even happened.

The ex-templar had been handed off to the nearest inquisition camp with the promise of work among the support staff and a lyrium dose until he could talk to Cullen about quitting, something Cole had enthusiastically approved. Dorian had met with the retainer who turned out to be his father. Mahanon had been sympathetic but had also encouraged him to talk to him. Aura had offered to kill him and Dorian had laughed before telling her no. It was about then the Inquisitor realized she wasn't holding her new pet and went looking.

He found it having a standoff with Dorian's Father in the hallway upstairs.

With a quick 'excuse me' he'd gone to pick it up and ignored the daggers it was glaring at the Magister until he was back downstairs, dumping it into his Morning Guards lap. She'd just smiled back at him knowingly and Dorian was too drunk by then to realize just how close he'd come to being orphaned.

Solas wasn't talking to anyone as they rode back. He'd retreated into grumpy silence as he contemplated Cole who was seated sideways on the back of the Afternoon Guards horse, kicking his feet in the air like a child as they discussed stories with Varric. Varric was quite confused himself but he was still desperately trying not to think about Bianca and probably The Book.

After all, it had predicted the one question that summed up the entire investigation.

They all ended up going their separate ways when they finished putting away their mounts and it was almost a relief when Leliana reported that they'd found out where in the Arbor wilds Corypheus was going.

There was an old temple, old enough that it had only existed in the barest of rumors until Corypheus and his remaining forces had revealed it by going right for it.

"We have him on the run and if we use the Orlesian army we can make it a decisive victory." Cullen had suggested. They'd gone with it and messengers were sent with the details.

Morrigan had shown him the Eluvian and made her theories about what the Elder One was after. A way into the physical fade was as good an answer as any given the nature of his Anchor. It had been built to breach the the veil after all.

But it didn't quite ring true and looking at his guards he was sure they were missing something. One of them had wondered off to the Free Marches to investigate something that Had taken them by surprise and the others had tolerated Morrigan instead of agreeing. Like they were waiting for something.

Like they thought she was wrong.

And he trusted them above the Witch of the Wilds.

It was with that in mind that he'd consulted The Book and found a segment that he'd thought was for something else. They'd found an inscription in Elvhen that described the Temple of Pride. It had been connected to the shards and the name had stuck out at the time. It had reminded him of the section titled "What Pride had Wrought." but now, with the mention of the possible temple it made him think again.

"What kind of Vessel is used to hold a Memory?" He read the question out loud and sat back.

His morning guard sat on the other side of the desk, curled into a chair she'd put there some time ago, one of Varric's terrible romance serial books in one hand and a quill in the other. She had been making notes and had written a whole list of suggestions that he guessed she intended to give to the Author at some point. The blonde seemed to take great amusement in needling the dwarf about that Serial.

When he'd asked the question aloud the guard had looked up and tapped her forehead.

Memories were remembered. They were kept in one's mind.

"But if they need a vessel, who's memories are they?" He continued the thought.

"A lifetime, a lifetime, a lifetime more. Their head must be loud." Her voice had a wispy quality to it like it did when she whispered in his ear or said something important. Although she reminded him strongly of Cole when she did that.

Still, she'd all but confirmed his thoughts.

They lapsed back into a comfortable silence and that was that.

—x—

The day before they were scheduled to follow the army down into the Arbor Wilds Simon returned to Skyhold and immediately dragged them all down into the Undercroft where they could whisper under the sound of the falls.

"I found them!" He declared before the others had even sat down in the shadows. He was almost bouncing as he pulled out a scroll. "Timothy the of the Kirkwall guard, Kendra the senior Clerk of the Viscounts office and Belle the now owner of the Painted Rose appeared in Kirkwall the 'day Hawke arrived'!"

He waved his notes under their noses, too fast to read.

"And get this. Their fourth member John, joined the Templars!"

The poor man had clearly been sitting on this for the entire trip back and didn't hesitate to spill the beans.

Four more people had come from their world. Arriving in Kirkwall they hadn't had the convenience of an organized military structure to insert themselves into. They'd arrived together on the street in the middle of the refugee exodus out of Fereldon during the fifth blight. They hadn't seen or heard of any others until Simon had found them, but they had done everything they could to survive, inserting themselves into the power structures of Kirkwall in an effort to ensure their safety.

Tim of the City Guard had made himself invaluable to Aveline, using her to keep track of Hawke's escapades. Kendra had made them identities in the Viscounts office, allowing them to come and go as they pleased, her literacy putting her a head and shoulders above all other applicants for the position of senior clerk after the Viscount and his previous staff died and the other woman of their quartet had gone right into Hawke's path, setting herself up at the Painted Rose and getting far more personal with the man than the rest had been comfortable with.

She was the reason he had been so skittish with the Guards.

He'd found out she was keeping tabs on him but not how and she'd let slip too much about what was coming with no real reason for knowing and it had put him on guard in the worst way. He'd stopped going to the Rose and when she'd tried to interact with him outside the bordello he'd called her crazy and gotten paranoid.

Brian had nudged Tracy who had promptly tried to stomp on his foot, not needing to hear anything to know what he was getting at with that.

Their last member had been a dead ringer for one Raleigh Samson, so when Tim had found him dead on a patrol through Darktown early enough that Cullen hadn't met him, they'd stripped him of his armor and John had taken his place.

People noticed, of course they noticed and the now Samson had been all but blackmailed into carrying notes for Maddox. It had lead to the two becoming thick as thieves as John had continued to go see the others either around the city or at the Rose. He'd been on the inside track, sympathetic to the mages and generally well liked until Meridith had come along.

Passing notes shouldn't be terms for dismissal, but he hadn't been able to keep working under her. So he'd gladly left the Templars before he realized just what it would cost. He'd been taking Samson's Lyrium, there was no way to get around it with the others all around him and for a while he'd been fine but then the cravings set in. The other earthlings had tried to keep him supplied for a while before it became too suspicious for them to keep buying it. They'd begged him to detox and quit before it was too late but he'd been unable too.

They'd lost track of him in Darktown, the man choosing to vanish to spare them having to see him a human wreck. They knew the rest of the story from there, they'd all played the game after all. But John hadn't. The others had confirmed that by the time they made the transition to Thedas there hadn't been a Dragon Age 3 yet, just like how they'd seen hints of a Dragon Age 4 but had no clue what actually happened in it.

"I don't know about you but I think we have a obligation to the fraternity." Brian said at last as Simon finished up the story. They all looked at each other and slowly Tracy nodded.

"He didn't know... I mean, he knew the Red Lyrium wasn't good, it was in the main story... but if he wasn't paying attention or he forgot..."

"Or the Lyrium took more from him than they realized." Aura piped in, tracing a circle on her forehead in a way that resembled a tranquil brand.

"I'd feel bad if we didn't try to reach out to him." The Evening Guard continued. "We know we can pick him up after the te-"he stopped himself speaking and changed what he was about to say. "-next part, so maybe we could see what he has to say."

They did feel sorry for the guy but he'd likely never be free of the red lyrium.

Only time would tell if it was even possible to help him, or if they'd have to give him a more final sort of kindness and put him down.

—x—

"I hate jungles."

"I hate bugs."

"And sand."

"And heat."

"And pollinating flowers."

"And horses."

For once Varric wasn't alone in complaining about... well... everything.

They'd forgotten that the Arbor Wilds was a primordial forest that was close to a jungle in type. Hot and humid and filled with all sorts of creepy crawlies. The Inquisitor's main team consisted of Solas, Varric and Bull while the advisors were embracing their chance to get out into the field again. All of them were present performing various tasks.

Josephine was coordinating with the Orlesians to canvas the jungle around them for the enemy, the main inquisition force lead by Cullen, now veterans of Adamant, were taking the direct assault against the majority. While they took care of the distraction the Inquisitor's group and Morrigan would slip past and head directly for the temple.

They'd already spotted Grey Warden mages that had been unaccounted for amid the red templar ranks. Which made it all the better that they'd left their conscripted wardens at home. Any warden on the field at this point was just another enemy that could work against them.

Leliana had taken a personal interest in scouting their forward position and her scouts were all over the jungle around them. Feeling out the landscape for signs of the temple.

The guards were doing actual guard duty outside the Inquisition command center trying not to giggle at the Empress.

Why she thought it would be a great idea to wear a ballgown in a jungle was a mystery.

...Must have been an Orlesian thing.

Said Empress was speaking with the Inquisitor, accompanied by her two blackmailed co-rulers and they all glared daggers at the elf when they thought no one was looking. That said Briala was also staring funny at Aura, as was her agent, and the cluster of elves near the medical tent, and the inquisition's elven scouts who had been talking to them. Not to mention the mage in the party hanging out waiting for messages to deliver.

Simon, given how he hadn't seen this happening yet with how new the behavior was, elbowed Tracy.

"What Happened while I was away?" He asked out of the corner of his mouth and the Afternoon Guard had to stiffle a snort of laughter as he pointed at the elves.

"I'll tell you later, it's hilarious." The Night Guard just regarded her with a dubious expression and let the subject drop.

The battle was joined in full by the time the Inquisitor took his team and broke through the fighting. The mages lead by Fiona and the Templars lead by Barris had been working together by what they saw on the way through. It was a pretty big step for both sides given their former animosity. The Templars were the last of their order and they had basically given up their former authority upon joining the Inquisition. There hadn't really been enough of them left to call them an order anymore either way.

The mages hadn't been happy with their presence at first. They'd been offered an Alliance and safety, but the Templars had been seen as a distinct threat until they'd discovered what happened to them. Of the two the templars had gotten the worse deal and both sides soon came to realize that without the Inquisition's actions, neither of them would even be alive or free to complain about it.

(Of course the Guards had meddled relentlessly while they worked to rebuild Skyhold to make that understanding come about but that was their secret.)

Both leaders now merely nodded as the guards passed in the Inquisitor's wake and went back to coordinating their people.

They didn't have a problem following though until they hit the front of the temple. There had been an explosion caused by the magical defenses and they caught sight of the tail end of the party ducking into the temple itself. The dragon breaking off it's assault on the doors as they closed, glimmering with magic.

But if they'd already gone past...

"Fuck!" They threw themselves into cover as a corpse on the battlefield stood up, rapidly transforming into Corypheus.

It was the stuff body horror was made of as a grey warden melted and stood back up as their enemy, an enemy they couldn't just sneak past.

It was pants shittingly terrifying being so close.

"What do we do?" Simon hissed, in a reflection of their arrival.

"I don't know." Tracy said back in exactly the same tone.

Aura slid down the wall they were hiding behind and pulled off her pack, opening the flap to reveal the Tonberry. It stared at her with bright gold eyes and waited, as if sensing something important was about to occur.

The Assassin took a breath.

"Resentment." She said and the others stopped trying to keep track of Corypheus look at her. "You are a being of Resentment. A spirit of water and earth and vengeance." Her voice warped at the end and the lantern light went a shade of dark violet, becoming a tiny doorway to a flickering void. "They're right to fear you. But it's not where your power comes from. It's not your purpose any more. You are a Grudge given shape, the blade of the damned. You take the curses and the hate of every being that has died and become their weapon. You are not fast, or big, but you are powerful. Feel it. Feel their curses... kill him." She set the little fishbeast down on the ground before her and with creepy slowness it's head turned unerringly toward the place where Corypheus was reshaping.

And took a step.

Suddenly it wasn't there anymore, it was a dozen paces closer as they blinked and it moved closer again. Then it was behind the Darkspawn Magister.

It looked so small and if he turned around Corypheus could probably just punt it across the jungle, but he didn't get the chance.

*DOINK*

The Magister gave a startled noise that at any other time would have been looney toons worthy, but right now those watching were just horrified. It held up the lantern and they could see in their minds eye, a cast bar with the name.

Everybody's Grudge.

A cocoon of dark energy wrapped around the downed monster and the scream was entirely involuntary as it wore away at his body, and when the energy dissipated there was nothing left but a desiccated husk.

"Fuck me." Brian was the only one with a voice.

"Move." Aura just commanded and they had to be pulled into action as the Tonberry rounded on another corpse that was undergoing metamorphosis. They raced for the gateway but it had been bared behind the Inquisitor. So they turned to the sides of the bridge and threw themselves down the roots of the immense tree that held the ruin together.

Simon was chanting curses beneath his breath as they ran from the incarnation of his fears, any progress he might have made toward relaxing around the confused little fearling now long gone. They found a gap in the walls that wasn't protected from time and hadn't been noted by the guardians and squeezed through. In the dark underbelly of the temple they stopped and listened for the enraged roars of the dragon outside and the grind of the mechanisms above.

"What... what the fuck was that?" Brian asked as their hearts stopped their attempts to smash out of their chests.

"He didn't know." Aura answered, going for a flask and grimacing at the taste of whatever was inside. "Cole said it was confused. It was a fear demon. It wasn't actually a Tonberry but it was stuck until I told it 'how' to be one. Now there's no turning it back."

Simon shuddered.

"A knight." He hissed through his teeth. "You turned it into a Tonberry knight."

The assassin glared back through the gloom.

"It's not. There aren't any laser beams or light sabers. It's just a hunt variant."

Simon opened his mouth to retort when Tracy held up a hand for silence and gestured to listen.

Voices.

The Inquisitor was passing somewhere above and they quickly found an opening to the surface. They looked at each other then back up before Aura opened her mouth and spoke.

"Ask Morrigan if she's still got that ladder the Warden gave her so we can get out of this hole."

The other three guards forgot where they were in that moment as the earlier tension was broken and they began to giggle like idiots.

The voices got louder for a moment and shortly after the end of a rope dropped past them with a 'whoomp'.

Aura was the first one up, dragging herself over the railing and into the temple proper.

In front of her stood the inquisitor's party, Solas looking faintly disbelieving, Morrigan looking outright vexed and Varric holding a hand out to Bull, giving the Qunari a 'pay up' gesture.

"Told you he wasn't just hearing things." The dwarf declared, smug.

The rest of the guard heaved themselves out of the hole behind her and the Inquisitor was all smiles at the sight of them.

"Nice of you to join the party."

Brian gave a strained bark of laughter.

"You don't want to know what happened on the way here."

No. No. They really didn't.

—x—

Tracy had died.

She had died and gone to heaven.

Corypheus must have caught up and killed her and she didn't even care because there was a parade of hot elves in armor lining the walls of the temple.

Abelas wore an expression of confusion as Simon towed the drooling guardswoman away from the conversation.

She'd been having a ball throughout the entire temple and while she'd missed some of the initial exchanges between Solas and Morrigan she had more than made up for it afterward. Every time they came across something in the ruins that depicted Fen'Harel or another of the Enavuris that wasn't Mythal, the Witch of the Wilds would stop and comment.

"Why venerate someone considered an enemy in your temple?" Was her question about Fen'Harel.

"Are we likely to figure it out by staring at it?" Voldemort asked with the tone of voice that implied he knew but thought he wouldn't be believed.

"Fen'Harel is the baby of the family. If Mythal was the mother why wouldn't she have pictures of her kids... or you know. Statues."

Both mages had rounded on Tracy in varying levels of irritation at her input. The sheer amount of 'Well actually' moments she'd indulged in in the past hour had driven the pair near to insanity. Morrigan was frustrated with her lack of awe and Voldemort had been glaring daggers as she'd blatantly outed his secrets in ways that wouldn't be taken seriously but were entirely correct.

"It was said Falon'din guided the dead..."

"They don't sing songs about Falon'din's vanity."

"You know I bet he wasn't even an elf. It would totally explain why he was stuck in the fade. You know those stories about him and Dirthamen kinda make me think of possession gone wrong."

The other guards had thought it strange that she was antagonizing Solas but hadn't been able to call her out on it with their current location.

Eventually though, they'd come to the end of the path and entered the room with the Sentinels.

And Tracy had clocked out.

Although being confused didn't stop the overtly aggressive elves from being annoyed with all the intruders they'd had stomping through their home.

"-you are unlike the other invaders... you stumble down our paths at the side of one of our own..."

And if that wasn't the biggest giveaway of Voldemort's identity nothing was.

"You bear the mark of magic that is... familiar."

The anchor crackled in response to being called upon like a living thing.

"How has this come to pass? What is your connection to those who first disturbed our slumber?"

The Inquisitor stepped forward and Aura moved up into his shadow.

"They're my enemies as well as yours."

'Darkness leads them, the blood of the mad earth in their veins.'

The inquisition members didn't react to the second line she whispered under Inquisitor's response but the Sentinels did. They perked right up as she took a gamble on the words that might catch their interest and maybe it had worked too well as the entire population of the room zeroed in on her. The leader's eye just flicked to her and then back to Mahanon.

"I am called Abelas." He continued at last. "We are Sentinels. Tasked with standing against those who trespass on sacred ground. We wake only to fight, to preserve this place. Our numbers diminish with each invasion. I know what you seek. Like all who have come before you you wish to drink from the Vir'abelasan."

Morrigan looked excited at that, muttering the translations like the Inquisitor wasn't a dalish elf with enough general knowledge of how to figure old words out for himself.

Tracy just leaned into Simon and said in a stage whisper...

"His name is Sorrow, if he was the well I'd drink him right up."

...And just like that the entire dramatic buildup was ruined.

"Really giggles?" Varric voiced their exasperation and disbelief, half turning to look at the woman. She just grinned dreamily back.

"Can you fault my taste?" She asked and Varric answered-

"I'm not answering that."

At the same time Simon said-

"Yes."

The poor elf in question clearly didn't know if he should be offended or not.

Or maybe he was just annoyed at being ignored.

"The well is not for you! Not for any of you!" Abelas tried to go back on script, flustered as he paced the upper level.

'We don't want it.' Aura answered from the inquisitor's shadow. 'History may teach, but it is not the now. The Inquisition will stop the mad blood and leave. The Inheritor however...'

Around her the inquisition members were talking, discussing the situation aloud, Solas complaining about how they'd hidden away and done nothing. Tracy saying they hadn't seen anyone else try to fix things either and Morrigan was getting more and more anxious.

"We did not come here to fight you." The Inquisitor is entirely ernest in that desire. "Nor to steal from the Temple." And maybe it's his honesty or maybe it's the words from Aura, but the Temple Guardian stares through them almost until something finally gives.

"I believe you." He admits, somewhat calmer than before. "Tresspass you have, but you have followed the Rites of Petition. You have shown respect to Mythal." He paced back to stand at the lip of his platform. "If these others are the enemy you say they are, we will aid you in destroying them. When this is done, you shall be permitted to depart... and never return."

It's the outcome the Guards would choose. They of all people know what waits beyond that choice. The Well of Sorrows was important, yes, but not to them. What they know now is that they are there to focus merely on their own part, the inquisition timeline. What comes before or after doesn't matter, because another group will arrive in Tevinter and help that Hero save the day. Aura had already told the Ancient Elf about Mythal's inheritor and had all but washed their hands of Morrigan's actions. Mahanon had basically backed her up with his own statement. They'd get Samson, secure the temple, and then they'd leave them to their fate.

Additionally, there was a chance, that if the Inquisitor drank from the well he'd be manipulated or controlled by Solas should he gain the fragment of Mythal's power. They hadn't thought to find out if The Warden had spared Flemeth or if Hawke had performed the ritual as requested, though the mentions of Merrill had implied that he had.

Either way, Aura wasn't going to hand her Mahanon to an enemy, and for any of the guards to drink from the well meant that they could be used against him. They didn't want that either.

So the only one left with any desire to take the well, was Morrigan.

"Consider carefully." The witch was already saying. "You must stop Corypheus, yes, but you may also need the Well for your own."

"We accept." The Inquisitor answered almost immediately and behind him Solas relaxed. The other guards could see Aura smiling too even if they couldn't hear what she was muttering under her breath. The Elves were still watching her rather fixedly.

"Very well." Abelas had recovered enough dignity to wear a straight face. "You will be guided to those you seek." The implied 'so you don't go running lose and overturn the temple while you're at it' went unspoken. "As for the Vir'Abelasan... it shall not be despoiled, even if I must destroy it myself."

He was already walking by the time he finished talking and Morrigan panicked.

"No!" She leapt, transforming into a raven and taking off. The party went to grab her but Mahanon held up an arm and stopped them.

"She's on her own." He cautioned them, "We have an enemy to find."

Varric was the only one who didn't question it, especially when Aura slipped away from the group. The dwarf and the former Ben Hassrath noted her departure before they let themselves be herded away. A withered old elf paced ahead of them, staff in one hand and book under the other. The inner sanctum was mostly untouched but for the occasional Venatori. Even Tracy was silent here. She had sobered up considerably after leaving the audience chamber. The Inquisitor was trying to drink in every detail he could see, still very much drawn to the wonders of the past as they finally came to a door that lead outside.

Well, for a given measure of outside.

The entire core of the temple had been hollowed out, open to the sky, and the same primordial forest as outside grew rampant within.

However they didn't have time to enjoy the view. The red templars were overwhelming the opposing elves and the group soon jumped into the fight. Samson certainly proved his worth as an opponent screaming obscenities and demands across the field. Dagna's rune to break his armor worked like a charm though and they weakened him significantly.

But unlike in the game, even when he was beaten the otherworlder didn't submit. He got a second wind and was tearing himself to pieces trying to kill them when Brian saw it. An insignia etched into the armor underneath the Red Templar heraldry.

It seemed, Samson... no, John, still remembered something of home.

Brian had been a soldier even before coming to Thedas, although there hadn't been much for him after, he'd served his country and done his time on the battlefield. It hadn't just been a job though. It had effected his life down to the smallest detail. How he folded his clothes, how he spoke to people, how he held himself even as he went on to work minimum wage jobs and distracted himself with videogame achievement scores because the alternative was thinking about the things he'd done in the name of his country.

And the military insignia under the paint was as familiar as his own name.

So he went with his instinct and started to speak his oath of enlistment.

It took a bit for the words to take hold. Samson had been beyond hearing, but he felt it when the battlefield went quiet and finally, as Brian reached the half way point he stumbled to a halt. The others backed off and he stood there listening, tears streaming down his cheeks as he quoted the last few lines himself and went to his knees.

"You with me John?" The Evening Guard asked, crouching down near enough that he didn't have to raise his voice but far enough away that he couldn't take a lunge. The templar gave a shuddering breath and nodded, clearly feeling all the damage now that his berserk rage was broken.

"That oath, how do you...?" He trailed off.

"I took it myself. A long time ago." Was the answer.

"Then you know..." the guards knew many things and he could have been referring to anything, but Brian just gave him a solemn nod, projecting all the calm confidence he could.

"No man left behind soldier. Let us take you home." Well, they couldn't take him back to earth. As far as they knew they were stuck there, but this fight was over and Samson was done. He sagged and then passed out.

His fight was over.

—x—

Morrigan ended up drinking from the well.

After the Guards had taken custody of Samson, Abelas had skidded past with Morrigan on his tail. Their missing assassin had joined the Inquisitor on the stairs, having followed the pair of them as the Temple guardian lead The Witch on their merry chase. Aura had been all but giggling over the elf's home team advantage on that fact.

It was doubly so, given that they'd been fighting next to the well for the last ten minutes before they'd shown up. If Morrigan hadn't panicked and followed the elf she'd have been there much sooner.

Even so they'd had to step in to prevent bloodshed. Morrigan had taken his threat to just destroy the well seriously and in spite of having no idea what awaited her on the other side of it, she was determined to drink.

'With such singular purpose, maybe she was brought here to help. The temple is breached and the Well can no longer stay. There is nothing to stop you reclaiming it later...'

The elf had been in the middle of a tense stare off when the Morning Guard had muttered and something in that comment had reached him. He'd put up a resistance but suddenly his heart wasn't in it.

Voldemort had seen it too, taking a chance and admitting his own origins in response.

"Other places, other duties."

The Guards turned almost as one to glare at him behind his back. The sheer open vehemence made the Temple Guardian pause at the sight.

'A lone wolf preys upon weakness.' The assassin muttered. 'He wants to bring it back, but will the world let him?'

Abelas said nothing, with a cryptic warning about bindings and control he left the well at last, but not before passing Tracy who held her hand up to the side of her head and made a sign with her finger and her thumb, mouthing 'call me'. Simon just gave a long suffering sigh and jabbed her in the side with an elbow.

But while they waited for the Witch to take the Well they stood tense guard. The elves were in full retreat, and their enemy was approaching. Corypheus himself stood opposite them on the balcony they'd entered from. He was already enraged to the extreme but when he saw them waiting and the well empty he roared in thwarted rage. The companions had tensed for a fight, the Inquisitor hoping for a safe route to escape, but the guards just stood there, bored almost.

The team looked at them in confusion as the quartet just ushered them toward the single intact Eluvian on the platform. The reason for their calm became apparent not long after.

Clearly the Darkspawn had forgotten something. In his rush to reach Samson and the Well he'd let himself forget what had occurred earlier and now he paid for it.

*DOINK*

The scream this time was pure frustration and Aura sighed at the sound of it.

The dark energy lashed out, consuming the body and forcing the Magister to respawn elsewhere and finally, there was the pitter patter of little feet. Everyone gripped their weapons a little harder, but froze as the little green fishbeast climbed with lethargic slowness up the last step.

"Awww, you're tired." Aura found herself cooing as it blinked at the group and ignored the shouts of the other guards to leave it. She crossed the distance to take it up in her arms. The Tonberry brought up the knife, but rather than lop her arm, the blade bounced off her gauntlet as if it hadn't just been one hitting their greatest enemy.

By the time she turned back toward the others it was sleeping.

"If you bring that thing near me I'm going to scream like a little girl and run in the other direction until I can find some other way to seal it back in the fade." Simon declared, voice deliberately calm. The Assassin just grinned at him and made an 'after you' gesture toward the Eluvian, but she stayed toward the back of the small convoy while Morrigan opened the way.

Everyone else gave her, and her pet demon a wide berth.

And in the remnants of the Well, something watched them leave before following.

The mirror shattered behind it.

—x—

The following days were much slower in comparison. By returning to Skyhold via Eluvian they'd beaten the rest of the army in returning and they'd had to wait for the rest to finish the campaign and return.

It had been a decisive victory in their favor and Corypheus had been seen fleeing, the rest of his forces left to die against the combined forces of the Inquisition and Orlais.

In Skyhold they'd waited and many of the inner circle were spotted talking to the Inquisitor. The Guards were pleased. As far as Inquisitors went theirs had been a good one. When they'd set out to meddle they had anticipated being much more involved with the process, but they weren't the main characters, not even close and that was okay too. Dare they say it, it had been fun, even with demons and monsters and bears. Sure it was scary being on this side of the screen but it had also shown them a million other things the game hadn't.

Tracy had adopted a kid, Simon had gotten a second lease on life, Brian had found a reason not to chew on a bullet and Aura...

...Well they weren't sure what she got out of it but she seemed to be enjoying herself spreading around enough chaos to summon a Shoggoth.

Right now though they sat in the upper level of the Herald's Rest with their own drinks in front of them as they watched most of the inner circle playing cards. They were laughing at the stories and enjoying the sight of Josephine cleaning out anyone that wasn't the inquisitor.

No one bothered to call out Aura who was looking over the Ambassadors shoulder from on high, muttering what cards she had in her hand. (And nevermind that Cole was also doing oddly well.)

Samson had been tried the morning after the Advisors returned ahead of the main army. He hadn't resisted the verdict either. He was to be imprisoned for the foreseeable future at the expense of the inquisition. Brian and Cullen had both been given responsibility for him, both to get information about any remaining Venatori or Red Templar strongholds and to see if he could recover... be rehabilitated.

Samson had proved that even under his anger and righteous fury he was still a good person, he'd done a lot of the wrong things for the right reasons, but the Guards were all to aware of what happened when people held good intentions.

Brian was already planning the therapy sessions.

"To think we've made it this far..." Simon scribbled notes into his own record book, a quill in one hand and a fork in the other.

"Hmmmm." Tracy hummed in agreement, he face was the happy red daze of drunk as she watched the show below. "Oh I am gonna have some fapping material tonight."

"What, did Voldemort show up?" Brian asked, having snorted into his drink. The woman just turned a gimlet eye on him.

"No. Josephine is about to clean out Cullen. He's due for a walk of shame, remember?" Simon raised an eyebrow at her.

"I was meaning to ask. Why were you so intent on annoying him and Morrigan? I don't think I've seen you get that upset at him, not even when he all but ran away from Alim."

The Afternoon Guard sniffed haughtily.

"It would be around now that he would break up with me." She grumbled. "And I sent myself a note from the future." They did remember her getting something along those lines from The Book.

"Oh? What did it say? You never did tell us." She dropped her face to her arms and muttered something.

"Pardon...?" Simon jabbed her and she peeled herself up.

"You could have been great Lily Potter, but he didn't like your potential."

The other three froze as they parsed the phrase.

'Lily potter...' Aura mouthed silently, no longer watching the card game. 'He killed you.'

The other two gaped and Tracy took another drink.

"Yeah. Voldemort is the bad guy." She finally admitted. "You know Wisdom has been lurking in the fade waiting for us? I've been working with Faith to hide you. He keeps showing the Employee Aura I used to guide them out of the Fade to his agents." She jabbed a finger at said guard who looked visibly startled at the news. "And the story gets weirder every time someone tells it. They keep thinking you're some crazy manifestation of a god or something and they're fixated on it."

Tracy was smashed out of her gourd and her filter was entirely absent as she spilled the beans on everything that had been bothering her since the beginning.

"And the Inquisitor isn't helping. He knows you made him. Faith went into his dreams and you're there. He trusts you enough that his subconscious mind took the Employee form and made it into a defense in the fade. He believes in it so strongly Faith keeps winding up in your shape and then it affects everyone! And don't get me started on the Tonberry!" She shook her mug at Simon, sloshing beer over the rim. "Why can't you have a more reasonable fear? Like a Dementor? They're multiplying! Of course none of them know what to do yet, other than hers, but it's just a matter of time!"

Simon went white, then green, then white again.

"Geee thanks. I wasn't thinking about Dementors but now I am. Oh god."

"Oh hey, look. Final round." Brian pointed down in an obvious attempt to change the subject and they saw Cullen challenging Josephine.

Tracy cut off her rant to watch.

Behind her back Brian gave the other two a look, Simon looked grim, but Aura...

Was shaking in silent laughter.

What she was happy about was anyone's guess.

Below Cullen was ashen faced as Josephine held out a hand for his pants and Tracy just leaned over the railing and cat called. Some of them jumped, having forgotten they were there and Varric gave Mahanon a dirty look when he noticed Aura positioned to see Josie's cards. Cullen was blushing from his ears to his navel, burning red with humiliation as he managed to get undressed with the table still, covering his modesty... mostly.

Cassandra made one of her noises and left the game at that point, stating she didn't want to see his walk of shame. Dorian and Tracy were almost in sync when they declared that they'd like to see more and Josie took the pot and strutted out like a boss.

The Afternoon Guard wolf whistled as the Commander made a run for it.

"Well I think it's safe to say the night is over." Brian got to his feet and untangled himself from the bench. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna take Tracy back to the barracks. I don't think Alim needs to see this right now." He picked up the giggling woman and slung her arm over his shoulder. "Come on, lets get you to bed."

She babbled something about Abelas and giggled sleepily.

That left Simon sitting alone at the table as Aura stood and went out behind the Inquisitor. She'd hopped over the railing and used the supports for the first floor to climb down, startling Varric when she swaggered past.

Dorian and Bull wondered into the mercenary leader's room and the Night Guard closed his book.

"I suppose I could go negotiate for Cullen's armor..." he muttered to himself as he stared at the cover.

"..."

"She would be happy if you visited-"

The Night Guard near on jumped out of his skin.

"God Damnit Cole!"

—x—

Corypheus it seemed had gone to ground and while they knew where he'd turn up, they didn't know where he was hiding in the meantime.

So they did other things.

There was still much to mop up on the map. They were back in the Exalted Plains for the umpteenth time on the hunt for Snow White. Although it just so happened that it took them close to the location of the Dragon.

Aura had stayed back at camp with Tracy while the boy's ventured forth and Bull was like a kid in a candy store at the sight of the Gamordan Stormrider. Sera, Bull and Brian had been uncontrollably Jubilant over their victory when they returned to camp later that night, smelling like bog water and burnt hair.

Turns out Dragon slaying was a great team building exercise.

They squirreled out rifts, moving in a large loop with Skyhold at the center, tying up lose ends and finishing quests.

But the end was coming fast.

Alim and Kieran went missing.

Morrigan was in a tizzy as she darted around Skyhold, eventually grabbing the Inquisitor to help her look. She came skidding into the storage room with the Eluvian only to find Tracy had beaten them there.

The mirror glimmered blue in the dark room and cast the other mother in ghoulish light.

"What have you done?" Morrigan asked her, still panicking. Tracy stared at her over her shoulder. The Witch had been inexplicably wary of her for some time and the Dreamer was getting sick of it.

"Alim is missing." Was all she said before she crossed the event horizon and rather than appear in the crossroads she appeared in the fade. The others rushed through behind her, Aura present in the Inquisitor's shadow.

"Kieran!" Morrigan shouted aloud.

This part of the crossroads as so much closer to the raw fade. It leaked through cracks in the curtain that separated one from the other. The magic was old, primal and when they wondered the length of the curving path, they found their children standing together before a familiar form.

"Kieran!" Morrigan shouted again, rushing forward. Her son half turned to look at her, quite calm in comparison and Alim was smiling.

"Mum!" He waved her over and Tracy simply strode over to stand beside the boys as both the inquisitor and the Witch came up short.

"You!"

Flemeth just rolled her eyes at the vehemence displayed before looking away from her grandson.

"Yes, me, hello daughter dearest."

"What have you done to my son?!" Morrigan arc'ed up.

The entire following argument was utterly one sided, Tracy and the boys watched the back and forth like a tennis match as Morrigan attacked her mother then got owned by Mythal's control of the Well. Alim was wide eyed with childish awe over realizing that gods could be real and it made Tracy frown when he bounced and stared at Aura who didn't notice, too busy whispering explanations to Mahanon. He was following the byplay, mostly more amused by the situation than concerned. He and Kieran were similar in that regard.

'-the others orchestrated her death, and the youngest never forgave them. He was as vengeful as she was.'

'-like called to like, she needed a host and the human wanted vengeance, so they became one.'

'-She did love her, but she'd only grow if she left, so she sent her with the wardens.'

Flemeth kept on giving the Morning Guard sideways glances whenever she mentioned another piece of her history. Nevermind that most of it was secret or forgotten.

Eventually though Flemeth took the soul of the old god and it leapt to the new host without hesitation. Kieran visibly sagged as it left him but didn't seem upset, Alim was quick to take hold of him, helping his friend stay standing. Morrigan was still distrustful as she was granted the ability to take the form of a high dragon and immediately went to steer her son away.

Alim looked back when he realized that the other three adults hadn't moved to return with them.

"Mum?"

Tracy gave him an easy smile as she shooed him along gently.

"It's alright, I'll be along in a moment, I just need to have a word with Kieran's Grandma before I go." The elfling gave her a solemn look, then nodded, the smile returning.

"Okay!" He chirped and went to where Morrigan was fussing over her child. The four remaining people waited until they'd left their range before Tracy turned to see the fused witch and goddess staring rather pointedly at the three of them.

"Well then, what words would a human have for one such as I?" She asked, eyebrow raised. Tracy let her smile creep up her face.

"So what kind of insurance do you have wondering around these days?"

—x—

Simon had been enjoying some much needed down time when Josie found him once again.

It might be argued that he wasn't hiding from her exactly... but who was he kidding, he'd totally been hiding from her. She'd had a visitor earlier in the day and rather than linger in her office he'd made himself scarce. He honestly did like the Antivan but she was awkwardly smitten and it supposed that without Blackwall to amuse her she'd find other ways to keep herself occupied. The Inquisitor had already seen to her troubles with assassins and hadn't caught any of her flags.

He on the other hand, had, and it filled him with a certain sense of dread when he saw her approaching from the direction of the great hall. She certainly wasn't her usual bubbly self as she stopped before him.

"Ah, Ser Guardsman."

Aaaand the feeling got worse.

She always tried to use his name.

"Lady Josephine." He greeted her in return and she cringed a little and wrung her hands.

"That was poor of me, I am sorry Simon." She apologized, "but there is a very small problem that has come to my attention." He perks up at that.

"A problem? Is everything alright? Do I need to get the Inquisitor?" He asked and she went wide eyed.

"No! Uh, no. It is not something for the Inquisition, but for myself." She assured him, or tried to. He wracked his brains for a reason why she might be upset and froze when he had a thought.

(Oh... oh dear.)

His eyes rolled down to look at Josie who was still chattering away.

"-my parents have organized a match, however I told them I was already in a relationship with another and now the Lord wishes to duel my suitor for my hand-"

(Ohhhhh no. Nope. Nooooope. Red alert!)

"Oh." Is all he manages to get out. The Ambassador peers up at him hopefully and saying no suddenly feels like he'd be kicking a puppy. "Is there a way to postpone this?" He asks, not wanting to do it. But she bites her lip and his heart drops into his stomach.

"He's already here isn't he."

Josephine nods, mute.

Simon heaves a sigh. He's forgotten the details of this part. He knows that the Inquisitor must duel someone and that if they win they complete Josie's romance path. His last play through had been a Cassandra run and the details of the others are fuzzier than he'd like.

Although really, he'd like to know how it had come to this in the first place, he didn't remember going out of his way to do any of the romance side quests. Most of their interactions had been initiated by...

He looked down at the woman again.

"Oh."

He hadn't been romancing her. She'd decided to romance him.

"Ohhh..."

That made much more sense.

"Wait. I'm just a soldier. Would I even be a high enough status to even challenge him?" He asked, catching up with the scenario and remembering why she'd been unable to keep dating Blackwall in the Game.

Josephine looked guilty again.

"Well... I may have had the Inquisitor help me with a few favors, and I have been speaking to your friend. She had much to say about the village you grew up in and about the Lord Belmont..."

Simon stared at her as she hurried to elaborate and the feeling of Dread grew worse as the story unfolded before his eyes.

"-it was such a shame that such a good pious family met their end at the hands of such a monster as that Count, but your family has survived to this day regardless of the misfortunes laid upon you. You may not have noble status any longer, but I am not one to speak given my recent ventures into Trade."

Over her head he could see the assassin on the ramparts, hanging over the lip of the wall with her chin propped up on one hand and a wicked grin on her face.

'Fuck you.' He mouthed silently to her while Josie wasn't looking and that grin grew wider. 'Seriously, fuck you!'

Of all the Simon's in all the literary universes she decided to tell Josephine that he was related to a family of Vampire hunters that had been pitted against Count Dracula in an ancient Video Game.

He never wanted to hit a girl more than he wanted to hit Aura in that moment. He could hear her laughter rattling silently off the stones as she rolled out of sight and he was left to focus on Josephine once more.

"..."

Fuck it.

"Well then... Where do you suppose we can find Lord Otranto then?" He asks and the Ambassador brightens immensely.

"I'll make the arrangements." She skips away and Simon takes one more look around the courtyard for his team mate before following.

It's a far cry from the events of the game. Josephine was supposed to be the pacifist, 'niceness before knives', but when she was doing the chasing she seemed to be anything but!

And then he remembered something else that made a shiver wrack his spine.

If he accidentally broke her heart Leliana was going to murder him and put him in a shallow grave.

"... fuck you, Aura. Fuck you."

In the distance he could hear the cackling.

—x—

Chapter Text

Like any of the inner circle, the guards too had carved out places for themselves in the dark corners of the keep. Aura had her workshop down in the under croft. It was a small room off the main hall close to the edge with the waterfall. It may have been a store room once upon a time, but with two long shafts drilled through the bedrock to let in light, it was a pleasant enough place to hide away. She'd filled it with scavenged bolts of cloth, needles and thread under or around a large worktable and in the corner behind the door was a pilfered fainting couch that she slept on when she wasn't hovering around the Inquisitor at all hours of the day.

Her gown from the ball was still displayed on the dummy in the corner and a newly made dress form held the beginnings of a new creation in fluttering grey and pearl white.

After so many stories of hidden sanctuaries deep beneath the earth the shadowy workspace suited her.

Counter to her was the Templar's Den. Brian had built it in a tower about as far away as one could get from the mages. It was much more open and well lit. Most of the furniture was clumsily made, but it was full of projects that the solders and Templar's had made for themselves. In fact he'd been encouraging the Last of the Templar Order to find new ways to relax, from reading, to making things, to growing herbs in a corner that helped with the withdrawals and headaches some of them experienced.

Brian had seen war. He'd also seen what happened to the soldiers afterward, and he'd felt a strong kinship for the Templar's who usually ended their service at the end of a blade rather than retirement.

Coming to Thedas had saved him from himself.

So he spent a great deal of time simply listening, when he wasn't training he was in the Den helping in the best way he knew how.

Simon had a more shared space. His desk near Josephine was layered in knickknacks and trinkets he'd picked up from all over the place, making it look outright messy. He spent a great deal of time there, working on various documents and making copies of things where needed.

When he wasn't being fussed over by Josephine he was usually found in the rear Bailey mediating internal disputes. While the Inquisitor was the ultimate authority and his Advisors the seconds in command, they spent most of their time looking outward for threats. They were the axle on which all the other units moved and they had no time for the petty disputes that went on amid the rank and file. The Night Guard had seen the need for something and when he'd accidentally used the insult sword fighting it had really taken off, so he was stuck playing arbiter over the sparing and no one had officially stopped him.

Tracy however had a room off the gardens.

She'd taken to bribing Aura to make her pillows and festooned the place in colorful scarves and trinkets. It was where Alim stayed, close to where people could keep an eye on him in the gardens and she'd wanted to fill it with all the things that he'd never had while he lived in the Alienage. It was a lot like Sera's space in a way and it showed. But for a child who'd had nothing it was still a wonderland of sights and sounds.

Currently however two little boys where occupying the space designated as her tiny living room. Ever since he'd lost the archdemon's soul, Kieran had been... different and it showed in small ways. He no longer carried the air of something dark and Ancient, people weren't creeped out by his presence and with a friend by his side he was finally enjoying what Tracy considered a proper childhood.

Morrigan was certainly far less apprehensive than before.

While she clearly hadn't forgotten the conversation she'd had with him the day Tracy and Kieran had met, she could relax thinking that the reason someone might go after her baby was now rendered moot. And it was, for the most part. If anyone ever figured out who his father was it'd be a whole different can of worms, but right now in the home of the guards-woman with his Elvish best friend the little boy was just a little boy and she could trust someone else to watch him while she learned how to be a dragon.

"I wonder why they came?" Kieran says to himself. On the low table they're sitting at is a scattered mess of paper and different colored wax sticks that they've been using to doodle various images. "They knew it would end without any trouble on their part. The path is different but the result is the same."

Alim shrugs.

"Maybe it wasn't for the path? Maybe it's like me? You said I was different." His page has a rough castle sketched out with a smiling stick figure family beside it. One holds a big mace and has a spindly arm linked with a smaller figure with pointed ears. "I'd be dead if mum hadn't helped me." He says with grim acknowledgement. He may be alright now, but he'd been raised in the Alienage. He'd seen the Depravity of people first hand.

Kieran cracks a smile at that.

"You're here now. You're my friend. I will tell her thank you."

They smile at each other and go back to drawing. By now Kieran has a fairly good rendering of a dragon on the page before him.

"Do you think mum made a deal with your Grandma?" Alim asks after a long while.

"Yes." Comes the answer. "Why else would they stay behind?"

It hadn't been difficult to come to the conclusion that Alim's new mother didn't quite belong, nor did any of her friends. People rarely realised how much the children understood, they'd talked freely around Alim even before Kieran gave him context and he'd learned to parse their strange manner of speech.

Well... almost. He still didn't understand whole chunks of it, but he did know enough to follow the basics.

The elf mage in the room with the paintings was a bad guy. Even though they used a different name their eyes followed him like he was the biggest threat in the room. Even more so than the Qunari and he made everyone else nervous. Alim had been very careful to avoid him and Kieran had all but approved of his caution.

"He is old." He'd said. Not "his blood" but "him".

Most wouldn't think that a ten year old would comprehend the difference, but neither of them had had conventional upbringings. Kieran had his mother and an Archdemon in his head. Alim had grown up virtually on the streets and one had to be clever to survive on said streets for long.

Either way, his instincts said that he should avoid the danger.

So neither had ventured very far from the watching eyes of the guard or Morrigan.

"So if your mum made a deal with your grandma and my mum made a deal with your grandma, does that make us cousins instead?" Alim asked, done adding three more big stick figures and another little one beside his. Kieran tried valiantly to keep a straight face.

"Mother doesn't like Grandmother." He manages to get out. "But you are one of the 'people' like her ghost. I think you already are." The elfling nodded with all the solemnity of a child making a grand decision before they both burst into giggles. He looked down at his drawing and realized he was going to need another drawing to fit all the new members of his family on the paper.

They were still giggling and doodling when his Mum appeared in the doorway with dinner and he popped up from his cushion to greet her.

It didn't matter that his new mother was from another world, he loved her anyway.

—x—

They'd just been arguing about how to find Corypheus before he came crashing down on their heads when the Breach was reopened in an explosion of Veilfire green visible all the way from Skyhold.

In the war room Josie just closed her mouth mid sentence and stared with the rest of them.

'Showtime.' Aura muttered to herself, poking one of the larger markers till it was resting over the ruins of Haven on the map.

Technically the army hadn't returned yet, a few of the forward scouts had raced ahead of them, but there was little in the way of standing forces that could reasonably be spared to take on the Ancient Magister and whatever he had left over to fight with.

The Inquisitor just took on a grimly determined expression and declared he was going, with or without the Army. The inner circle would just have to do. In any case, if they failed to seal the breach a second time it would be the end of their world as they knew it regardless. The assassin seated under the table just made wordless noises of agreement over the sentiment. She didn't remember the Furture-That-Wasn't and if they were lucky she'd never have to. But that didn't mean that the echoes of the game didn't haunt her thoughts on occasion.

So Skyhold was emptied of all but the most skeletal guard contingent and out they trooped, traversing the distance a hell of a lot faster than their initial trek north. It had taken them ten times as long to get to Skyhold, firstly, because they had no idea where they were going. Solas' instructions had been "scout north" and he'd not given the Inquisitor anything beyond that. And secondly because they'd been dragging the entire civilian population of the town of Haven along with their soldiers, their wounded and a small horde of exhausted mages.

By comparison, a small mounted contingent on horses with a well mapped route, moved infinitely faster and what had taken a week last time only took a few hours at best.

The Guards were, of course, swept along in their wake.

One did not simply become the Main Characters security blanket and expect not to get dragged out to the final confrontation. Aura had taken it in stride. Tracy had been shaking with something like anticipation as her edges blurred and she hefted her mace. Simon had to take a few extra deep breaths while he ducked away from Josephine's fussing. It was an amusing twist to realize that the steadfast veteran Brian was actually the most affected.

He rode at the head of the short column of Soldiers they'd dragged away from their duties looking wild-eyed.

He was in charge.

He'd been in charge before, but this was the final battle. They'd be on the ground securing the perimeter and killing anything that tried to disrupt and or escape the main fight. They'd all seen a lot of combat in this world, but this was probably the most important fight of their lives.

So no pressure.

They weren't the only jittery ones.

Solas, riding in the rear guard, was physically twitching in the saddle. He hadn't been pulled for the main team and was making arguments every other turn as to why he should be. Dorian was acutely aware of how it could all go wrong. Unlike the others he Did remember the Future-that-wasn't and was praying to gods he didn't believe in between swigs from his ever present flask and Sera was cringing harder than the Inquisitor any time the Breach pulsed.

But, as they rode into the ruins of Haven the Guards pulled up short of the fight when they saw the Magister.

Standing alone under an arch way in what had once been the temple of sacred ashes he was flailing, the orb in one hand and a squad of scouts that Leliana had posted there "just in case" on the ground.

He was monologuing.

"Pfft." Aura smothered a laugh at the sight.

The scars of his many deaths at the hands of the Tonberry weren't visible. But he was here alone. There were no wardens in range, there were a few Demons, but nothing strong enough to threaten the scarce defenders left. He had nothing left but himself and the orb and he still thought he was going to win.

You had to admire his confidence, if nothing else.

Especially because he'd been downgraded from viable threat to Scene Chewing Villain.

And then the ruins started floating.

Morrigan, who was standing a ways away, spread her arms dramatically and transformed, massive wings beat against the air and she surged up toward the fight. A quick headcount placed Bull, Varric and Vivienne up above with them as the battle started in earnest.

The inquisitor's path was well on track.

That left the Guards to find their own battles for all that there wasn't much to find. The soldiers fanned out and the Inner circle members started to wail of the remaining Demons.

But here, so close to the Breach, with energy and magic all but pouring down on them from above the world seemed to be slipping further and further toward the fantastic.

And then, they saw it. The hint of teeth.

Their attention firmly caught, they watched from the corner of their eyes as the facade slipped and the resident Mage Hobo stood a little taller, hit a little harder.

They'd always been very careful around the elf. While they didn't go out of their way to antagonize him they hadn't done anything to help him either. (Tracy and her 'Well Actually's' and Wisdom aside) Their policy, if anyone realized they had one, had been to ignore him.

They neither helped nor hindered. They merely gave him the rope and let him tie the noose himself. Some would happily oppose him, others would try to change him. But if there was nothing else to realize it was that The Apostate never got what he wanted in any world. His entire life was a case study of too little too late either on his part or on others.

He never did anything for other people. Only for himself. And well...

Wisdom could so easily become pride after all.

They dispatched what was left and then before they had much time to contemplate what they needed to do next the Breach pulsed and the magic all but exploded. The air hummed and with a sound that they felt in their teeth the world flickered and snapped-

And went back to normal.

It was about then that they realized, without all the magic in the air, there was nothing holding up all those rocks and the guards came to a stop, staring up at the sky.

"Oh... oh shit." Simon muttered, backing up a step as a shadow passed above. "RUN!"

The Inquisition scattered and the ground shook violently as the first platform crashed down.

—x—

In the aftermath they scrambled into the ruins. Cassandra had bolted ahead looking like she was prepared to dig for Tevinter with her bare hands as she shouted for the Inquisitor. The Apostate had already vanished from sight and they wouldn't miss him. Bull hooted from a pile of rubble and laughed as his fellow warriors pulled him upright. He personally found Dorian who protested the manhandling until the battle high Qunari shut him up with a smouldering, adrenaline fuelled kiss. Vivienne made a face and looked away while Cassandra made a disgruntled noise but made no move to stop them.

The others were varying levels of Jubilant and exhausted as they ascended toward the top of the rubble in search of the inquisitor.

—x—

At the top of the rubble Aura found Morrigan, passed out on the blackened stone. She was alive, if somewhat battered, so the assassin rolled her into a recovery position and moved further into the ruin. The corpse of the dragon was cold and still to one side, buried by the rubble and it didn't take long to find her target.

The Inquisitor lay sprawled on the cracked stones that had once been a courtyard, not yet awake.

She ghosted into the open, crouched low to the ground as she approached, hands quickly seeking out a pulse. He was still alive, just unconscious. Beyond him rested the orb that had started the entire mess. Climbing over the elf she reached out and poked it, watching as it rolled slowly down the slight incline made by the tumbled stones. But before it could go very far it flickered with a shadowy light and cracked neatly in two.

"Fufufufufu." She chuckled darkly, retreating, and not a moment too soon as Solas came slinking into the scene. He noticed the broken focus right away and made a wounded noise, his shoulders sagging with despair before he went to take the pieces.

"No, no, no!" He muttered frantically as he went, picking them up and trying to fit them back together, but they were silent and still.

"Fufufufufu." She sniggered again, easily lifting the inquisitor into her arms as she sat and began to hum.

(Solas did not hear her.)

He gripped the pieces, his expressions cycling quickly through grief, anger and despair before turning to cold determination. He straightened and looked around, his eyes skimming past where she sat, unseeing, before the shouts of the others finally caught up, carried on the wind.

(Solas did not see her.)

He turned to the darkness and fled.

The rest of the inner circle began to clatter up the rubble, still calling out to the Inquisitor and a movement in her arms made her look down. Mahanon blinked up at her and she smiled.

He grinned dazedly back and had just enough time to get to his feet before the others came charging out of the gloom.

"-Ha! Told you she'd be up here!" Tracy yelled as they crowded the elf.

The Guards made their own huddle to the side as they watched the other defenders rally themselves for the ride home.

"So..." Brian began, his voice rising with a growing grin. "That's it. We're finished?"

"Looks that way." Simon answered.

"So what do we do now?" The soldier asked and Tracy hummed.

"Well, we've got some DLC to look forward too." The Afternoon guard rocked on her heels. "And of course the finale." The others nodded. Trespasser was going to be interesting, that was for sure. The Inquisitor made the call to return to Skyhold and the others shuffled over to follow when the assassin crouched down over the spot where the orb had fallen and poked a shadow...

... and out popped an orb. Fully intact.

She was still sniggering as she hid the inert core at the bottom of her quiver and hurried off after the others.

It always seemed a little strange. How the orb in the cutscene could land from the drop from the breach intact and still wind up shattered into chunks later. Maybe it had split on impact but hadn't shaken apart till the temple dropped out of the sky. Or maybe the stones losing their magic and plummeting to the earth had caused it to shatter. But what the Dread Wolf didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Her giggling was only a little bit hysterical as she caught up to the others.

Ahead of her, near the front of the group Sera complained loudly.

"Hey! Inquisitree, tell your girlfriend to stop giggling yeah? It's really creepy."

More than one pair of eyes swung back to look at her as she trotted out of the dark.

"I do not hear anything." Cassandra stated and Sera gave a frustrated growl.

"She doesn't shut up." The blonde whined, "I can hear her all the time, don't know how you lot put up with it."

"-he prayed for answers." Cole muttered from closer to Sera and the Jenny did a full body shudder and leapt away. "He prayed to his maker and his maker answered back."

"CREEPY!" Sera yelled over his quiet murmurings before she stomped on ahead.

Varric just gave her the stink eye the whole ride home.

—x—

The courtyard of Skyhold was swarming with people and when they stepped through the gate. The moment they saw the Inquisitor though, the crowd parted like the red sea, people bursting into cheers and applause.

The returning heroes took the praise with enthusiasm. In spite of how much they all just wanted to crawl into their beds and sleep. As it was they did manage to rest while Josie went wild to organize the victory celebration. Thus it was nearly two days after the defeat of Corypheus that the Guards found themselves crowding in Tracy's quarters with the distraught Alim.

Kieran and his mother had left just as the party had started, the Witch of the Wilds not willing to stick around and see what would become of the Inquisition now that their objective was complete.

And while their elfling had put on a brave face to say goodbye, he'd been miserable since.

"It'll be okay baby." Tracy cooed, her arms wrapped around him in a hug. "I have this feeling we'll get to see Kieran again eventually, no parting is forever." Alim sniffled.

"I know." He muttered, sounding reluctantly soothed.

Tracy tutted and fussed a little longer.

"I don't think we'll be making it to the party." She murmured to the others. "Go on ahead without us." Shooing them out of her rooms the others went. Bull was clearly on the way to tipsy and the Inquisitor was on the other end of the room talking to Vivienne. They split up, each going their separate ways to join the festivities, deliberately not thinking about the future, it was a celebration after all.

—x—

He'd felt eyes on him as he finally left the party in the wee hours of the morning.

In the space of a week they'd practically gone from one end of Thedas to the other and not even he had the energy to keep going after the fight they'd been through. But as Mahanon entered his room he stopped, letting the solid wood of the door prop him up as he finally relaxed.

"All done?"

It was a testament to how normal it had become that he didn't jump when the Assassin called out from above. Sighing he found his feet and dragged himself up the last few stairs, the door closing firmly behind him. The human woman was sprawled on the couch where it had been pulled in front of the fire.

The elf just wondered over and flopped down next to her, staring into the flames.

"All done."

They sat quietly and at some point he drifted off.

The world got saved.

And the inquisitor got a nap.

—x—

When all was said and done it surprised exactly no one that the rest of the world would eventually want the Inquisition gone.

Even so, it did nothing to stop the Assassin riding into the Winter Palace on a bear.

In the two years after the defeat of Corypheus they'd traveled from the Frostbacks to the Deep roads unearthing secrets and amassing power and it was long since time they lay down the sword.

(Mahanon wanted to lay down his sword.)

Around him the Honor Guard rode in their usual positions. Storvaker drawing stares as the hold beast on loan from Stone Bear Hold Lumbered opposite Cullen who was keeping pace on his left. The Bear and the Assassin had been thick as thieves from the moment they met and she'd given him puppy eyes until he'd agreed to take the creature home with them, if only for a little while. They'd promised to bring him back to the hold after the summit, one way or another.

"Another parade, another negotiation..." the Commander was grumbling in his saddle. Josephine snarked behind him and Aura tittered quietly.

"Don't worry Commander, we'll find you a guard dog to fend off the nobles." There was a ring of truth in the way the Assassin needled the other human and he couldn't stop the huff of laughter that slipped out of him.

Nearly everyone nearby perked up at the sound and they rode on, sitting a little taller in their saddles.

At the end of the soldier lined boulevard they dismounted, horses being taken by eager stablehands as the inquisition party moved aside to allow the next group to finish their march. There were a few laughs from the inquisition soldiers as they watched the servants attempt to figure out what to do with the bear until Storvaker took matters into his own... well... claws, and lumbered into a nearby garden, making himself comfortable in a gazebo that was rapidly emptied of people.

'Fufufufufufufu'

He heard a giggle on the wind and didn't fight the smile that formed upon hearing it.

(His assassin had a mean sense of humor)

Said assassin fell into step behind him as the others scattered and he noted the other members of his honor guard moving with purpose as they split up and began their own mysterious tasks.

In the wake of Corypheus' defeat he'd cornered them in the undercroft, having walked in on a meeting he was certain he wasn't supposed to know about. He'd intended to speak to Dagna at the time, but he'd caught sight of the evening guard going into the side room he knew the Assassin slept in and he'd been curious enough to investigate...

-x-

("-this is the third bunch in as many weeks!" The Assassin's voice was raised, he could feel the seething rage behind every word. "They just KEEP COMING! There must be SOMETHING we can do to manage them! If they disturb me one more time I won't wait for the council to be called, I'll hunt down Voldemort and the Viddasala myself and string their innards from the tower! Cole will help me! You know he will!"

He wasn't the only one startled by the threat, because the night guard made himself known, his voice was quieter but he sounded about as alarmed as Mahanon felt.

"We can't. Not yet anyway, he's gone to ground and we don't have a plan to deal with him. When the next Champions are called we can find their guardians and figure it out from there, I've already got Kendra working on getting eyes into Tevinter." There was a mutinous silence followed by the sudden sound of a knife thudding into flesh.

"Aura!" The voice of the afternoon guard joined in in protest, confirming that all four were present. "They're already dead!" There was grumbling.

'Birds and mice, lurking, leaping, scurry and hide. Eyes and ears and knives where no one wants them. Dragons and wolves don't fit in these halls but both will gladly exploit kindness.'

"-did you seriously just tattle to the inquisitor?"

The evening guard sounded incredulous, then...

"What? I notice things alright! I'm not a complete Jarhead. She's been doing that since the mountain! I don't know how but you have to have noticed it by now!"

There was a long beat of silence.

"... you know what, I wasn't going to ask, but sure, what are you doing?" Simon weighed in. There was more grumbling, this time not audible and his Assassin heaved a sigh before something hit wood with a thump.

"... it was an experiment." Came the slightly muffled admittance. "This world was magical, even if we're not. But almost all systems of magic use some component of belief in casting. Hold a wand in your hand and say a word to make a pinecone into a brush and it'll turn into a brush cause someone told you that's what the spell did and you believe it. Wednesday told Shadow to believe it would snow and it snowed. Tell a mage they're a monster that will be possessed and when they learn to believe it..." she trailed off.

There was another long silence.

"Oh you bitch." The Afternoon guard's voice was colored with dawning understanding and reluctant disbelief. "It got worse after Adamant, didn't it." Words came faster as the woman clearly started to put together a picture in her mind. "That was when he started dreaming about the employee. That was why Faith...!")

-x-

-the conversation had cut off before the human could finish her thought. He'd accidentally given himself away and found himself pulled into his Assassins workshop where he'd been treated to the sight of a pair of dead elves on the floor and the assassin still in her nightdress surrounded by the others.

The elves had been spies and with that context the words she'd uttered before made much more sense. They'd tried to hold a meeting in the most out of the way room they could find, only to disturb the woman who'd taken the intrusion into her space about as well as a Bear in the Hinterlands.

He decided that they truly must have been new. Because he knew for a fact that every elf in Skyhold (or any rationally thinking being for that matter) knew better than to disturb her in her lair. So rather than ask about what he'd heard he'd helped them dispose of the bodies and interrogated them about what was waiting for him at the end of the story. The quartet of humans had looked at each other and out it had come, the guards spinning a story that started in the earliest days of the Elvhen empire and trailed off as they came to the opening of the breach.

The entire thing had taken two days to tell.

At the end of it his entire world had been shaken.

The elvhen gods had started it all. Their empire stagnating, their people enslaved. The markings he'd worn on his face since he'd come of age weren't to give tribute to their gods, they turned them into literal tributes. He'd learned of the dwarves and their Titans and the elves war with them. What lyrium was and how it changed their world.

He learned about Fen'Harel and how he'd started rebelling against the others in a fit of pique. How everything he did was too little, too late and how he raised the veil in an act of revenge. Possibly the only good thing he'd done was free slaves, but then rather than build a place for them to really be free he'd left them to flounder on their own. Just as he had when he'd raised the veil, allowing the humans to grow fast enough to come in and pick at the ashes.

The Dalish had concealed the truth from their children so they wouldn't know what they'd lost and his people had eventually forgotten.

The mages of Ancient Tevinter, Corypheus included, had broken into the black city and released the blight, something that he'd already known, but then they'd revealed secrets only wardens would know, telling him of the archdemons and the blighted lyrium and how the disparate points connected to come together in the 'Champions'.

The Warden Commander of Farelden.

The Champion of Kirkwall.

...And the Herald of the Inquisition.

-x-

"You said I was one of yours." He'd stared at the Morning Guard intently, remembering some of the earliest moments of their time together. "Cole says you 'Made' me."

Across the table in the gloomy workshop where they'd been having their own meetings, the Assassin put her head down and blushed.

"I wouldn't say 'made' exactly." Tracy had cut in almost hesitantly, eyes darting between them. "Maybe a little more like Chosen." Brian grunted in agreement.

"I preferred Maxwell. Maxwell Travellan."

"Adar." Simon confirmed shortly.

"...and I was terrible at separating myself from Ellena." Tracy admitted, one hand going up to touch the tip of an ear that wasn't there.

-x-

Although the topic had been changed quickly, there had been much implied in that conversation, and while no one had said anything more, he hadn't missed the sheer longing the other three had displayed at the reminder. Whoever these possible Heralds had been, the guards had missed them immensely.

They'd hurried to tell him of the possible trip to the deep roads, and of the secrets hidden in the Frostback Basin. Laughing about nugs and bears and how the Thane lost her hair before coming to This.

The Exalted Council and all who watched it with baited breath.

And of course, the spies.

The memory made him sigh as Mother Giselle stepped into the Ballroom turned tribunal hall behind him.

Right on time.

And he really wasn't lying when he said the Inquisition would be disbanded, one way or another.

They had bigger enemies to deal with.

-x-

Two years was a long time and one could say that the guards had well and truly settled. Where as before they'd contemplated the idea of one day returning home, now, it seemed more like an idle fantasy than a distinct possibility and in the wake of that realization they'd begun to branch out from the inquisition in pursuit of a new future.

Between them they'd pooled their pensions and with only a little help from the others had found a place near Wycombe to act as their new base. The land had been left vacant by the incident that lead to Clan Lavellan sharing stewardship of the small city and while for all intents and purposes the newly ennobled "Simon Belmont" was the "Lord" it was understood by most of those aware of the significance of the guards, that the soon to be ex-inquisitor would still mostly be in charge.

(The night guard still hadn't forgiven the morning guard for that misunderstanding and by this point it was too late to get out of it. His fictional history may as well have been set in stone.)

Said Inquisitor wasn't in the least bit concerned by the loss of status. He'd had his fill of being important for the time being and was just glad he would be close to his clan again even if he didn't live with them going forward. Something about going back to the Dalish had chaffed in light of all the things he knew now.

(That and as much as he missed the forests and the people, Skyhold had spoiled him in terms of comfort. It didn't hurt that the entire inner circle had standing invitations to visit whenever they pleased.)

That said, they weren't planning to retire. Their Allies were already converging on the small estate, most doing so in the utmost secrecy. A few of which consisted of a fledgling order of killers that had finally established itself.

(The others made sure to carefully avoid even thinking about the people living in the basement of the servants wing. The less they knew the better for everyone.)

Their house staff was almost entirely ex-inquisition and the small guard contingent a mix of soldiers and ex-templars who either hadn't had a place to go back too or hadn't wanted to go to the retirement village with the others.

And all of them. Every single one. Was sworn to the goal of finding a way to finish what they'd started and figure out a way to end the threat that was the Dread Wolf and whatever monsters that lurked beyond the veil.

The ones that weren't sworn in on their new secret order?

Well. They were here.

Tracy quietly lingered in the building set aside for their use, watching the servants and soldiers of the Winter Palace strolling past. No one paid her any mind. She was as faceless as the next soldier and with her helmet on they couldn't even tell she had ears, let alone the shape of them. She'd been watching the others, and specifically the elves. In spite of their friend's weird vocal habits they'd noticed some didn't hear anything when she was around. And that these ones were more than likely agents.

A familiar blonde elf in scout armor strolled past and Tracy narrowed in on her, slinking into her blindspot and following along behind as she walked into a side yard, glanced around furtively, then climbed a trellis.

'There you are.'

There were few places to hide, but that didn't stop her noting when the elf, with surprising strength, dragged the massive Qunari warrior out onto the balcony and tossed him over the edge. They flinched at the noise, but when no one came to investigate they continued, leaping down to drag them further into the gardens. They stopped every now and then to catch their breath or wait for someone to pass before breaking a lock on the storeroom nearest the Inquisition quarters and pushing the corpse inside. The door was shut in a hurry as they fell into a shelf and sent things toppling, but the elf was already wiping off their armor and preparing to go find the Inquisitor.

Right on time.

Tracy backtracked to the side alley with the Trellis and with a few careful tugs to test the strength, began to climb.

(Honestly, these things were security nightmares.)

At the top of the trellis and past the broken banister she found an open door and beyond that, a room awash in light.

The Eluvian.

Through the looking glass she could almost feel the call and with shoulders straight and smile wide the Guard merely let herself inside.

-x-