A/N: While enjoying a fishing excursion in an attempt to bond once again as brothers, Aedan and Fergus Cousland are attacked by darkspawn. Aedan is able to sense that there are more of the creatures waiting in the Dragonbone Wastes, and so arranges a mission to venture there and eradicate the threat. Unable to wait for more Wardens to arrive, Aedan asks for volunteers from Highever to join himself and the Grey Warden mage, Mysaria. Once within the Wastes, the group is attacked by members of a dragon cult, and not without casualties.

-==# Aedan Cousland #==-

Aedan put the discomfort radiating from the wounds in his back out of his mind. It was irrelevant. One of his soldiers was down, injured, and he needed to know who. He needed to see if there was anything he could do. Not likely, given that Zari was a few steps ahead of him, but still. He had to be there.

He skidded to a stop as he saw Loras crouched over Tony. Immediately he scanned Loras's wife for blood, but saw none; she seemed whole, if in extreme pain.

"What is it?" he asked, loud enough for Zari to hear. "What's wrong with her?"

Please let it be curable, he thought as he watched Loras fuss over Tony. He'd seen it a week ago, the night Loras had flagged him down to be a witness to his impromptu—the Knight-Captain was head-over-heels for the scarred warrior woman, and she seemed to be just as taken with him. Aedan swallowed as he waited for Zari's response.

Please let this have a happy ending.

-==# Ser Donovan Loras #==-

Loras looked up at Aedan with concern. He had Tony's head cradled in his leather covered palms in his lap. She still seemed to be in a lot of pain but he had no idea what the mage had done to her. It had to have been the mage too. Every time Loras went over things in his head it was the same. Tony had been fine until he had ordered her to take out the mage.

He should have left her at home training the recruits...

No, no, Tony belonged on a battlefield. She knew the dangers of fighting darkspawn. She was a seasoned fighter. Leaving her at the castle would have been foolish. They needed people who knew what they were doing out here. People like Tony who knew to be careful with darkspawn blood. That knew where best to hit an ogre to get it down. That were not intimidated by the sight of darkspawn and all the tales running around about the creatures.

Bringing Tony along had been the correct move as a knight-captain. It did not mean that Loras as Tony's husband liked it.

"You will be alright love," he said, shifting his hold so he could run a hand over her slicked back hair. "The lady warden is here now and she will have you fixed in a minute."

-==# Antonina Garcion-Loras #==-

For a moment it didn't register that someone was touching her. The pain had rushed over her like a wave at high tide, but just as quickly it rolled back and Tony was able to struggle up for air.

She found herself cradled against Donovan, his hand running over her hair. He was murmuring comforting words; and normally Tony knew she would have felt safe and she would have believed him. But something was different this time - this wasn't like an ordinary wound that stitches and healing magic would fix. Tony knew this sad fact all the way to the marrow of her bones.

"Liar," she whispered up at him. "But I love you anyway." She forced a grin at him before the next wave of pain washed over her.

Inside the pain, every thought disappeared. But as it abated again, a different pain hit her. Tony wasn't worried about herself; she never was. Not even Donovan's love and kindness had been able to change that. But one thing it did change, and dramatically.

She cared about him. And if she died . . . the second of his wives and the first to be faithful . . . if she died just like the first, he might never recover.

That hurt Tony more sharply than the spell tearing her body apart.

-==# Mysaria #==-

Mysa dropped to the woman's side as soon as she arrived, trying to think of anything she had learned that could save from this. Her lips were pressed together in a very hard line matched by her brows pulled together in concentration. She called up the last of the willpower within her to cast on final healing spell. It would at least give her more time to consider her options. She heard Aedan ask what was wrong with her, and Mysa shook her head not wanting to voice it. Voicing it would make it final, and she wasn't prepared for anything final in this situation yet.

"You will be alright love. The lady warden is here now and she will have you fixed in a minute." Her eyes darted up to look at Loras. This was the woman he loved. Mysa did not know him or the woman she was tending to but her heart twisted. To fail them... When Tony spoke to him, Mysa thought she would sob. Instead, she steeled herself looking up at Aedan.

"Did Alistair teach you any templar abilities? Any at all?" Please, for the love of the Maker and his Bride Andraste let him have taught you, Soap.The plea was in her eyes, her fear more than evident. Her voice was just as desperate as her eyes.

She gulped some air and looked back to Loras and Tony. She rested her hand gently on top of one of Tony's. "You're infected with a spell called Walking Bomb. It... it isn't something I can heal." Her voice cracked as she said it, and she wished Arawn was here. If he had still be alive, came with them here, he would have had the ability to save her.

She looked back up to Aedan. "If he didn't teach you Aedan, we need to get everyone out of here, and soon." She did not want to say why, she couldn't say why. Tears brimmed in her eyes.

-==# Ser Ivar #==-

Ivar was, for a moment, lulled into a sense of relief when he first came up to the small group. He could see the scarred woman on the ground, and while everything about Loras' posture confirms she must be his new wife, he didn't see any blood, any gaping wounds. For a brief moment he entertained the thought that maybe things weren't so bad.

"You're infected with a spell called Walking Bomb. It... it isn't something I can heal." Ivar had little experience with spells and the like, but anything called Walking Bomb couldn't end well. His eyes fell to the mage, as if searching of any other answer then the one she was giving. "If he didn't teach you Aedan, we need to get everyone out of here, and soon."

Ivar's mouth pressed into a grim line. While the name and that warning, he could pretty well figure out what came next. "How long we got?" He didn't dare voice his conclusions- saying it made it real. This couldn't be real. His gaze went to Aedan. He hadn't heard what the woman had asked if he knew, but whatever it was Ivar hoped he knew it.