Cullen looked over the letter one last time. His orders were clear. The tower was NOT his responsibility. The tower wasn't even a priority; it was only "noted for further investigation". Intelligence suspected that the crumbling old thing was recently taken over by a group of apostates or rebels, and should be investigated when possible. Cullen was to hand off the order to a knight-Captain who would then in turn hand it off to a scouting party. Cullen's only duty in the matter was to make it someone else's problem.

Still, even knowing this, Cullen held the letter.

It would be easier, even more efficient, to not hand off the letter. To take a few templars himself and ride to the tower and clear it out. Bandits, apostates, blood mages, it didn't matter, the tower would be cleared and no longer a threat. That's all it would take, only a day's journey, and some minor rule bending.

In fact, there was no evidence he even needed to take any soldiers from the inquisition at all. He wasn't foolish enough to believe he could take on the task alone, but he didn't necessarily need official soldiers either. It would be much easier to grab some men without any official duties or holdings. Men like Iron Bull and his chargers. Yes, this was perfect work for mercenaries.

Cullen bit at his lip and gave the matter more thought. His absence from Skyhold would not go unnoticed, but the inquisition would hardly fall apart in a day's time without him. Bull worked under the Inquisitor, as they all did, but he more or less had free reign of how he spent his time. No one, other than perhaps the serving girls at the Herald's Rest, would notice he'd gone. Yes, Bull would do nicely. What's more, Bull would probably enjoy the opportunity to blow off some steam and get his hands dirty.

Cullen wanted to convince himself that the right thing to do was to hand the letter down the chain of command. It was the right thing to do. But was it the best thing to do? What if the tower really was full of blood mages and demons, or worse, red lyrium? If the chain of command took too long to pull in the right direction, the tower occupants could really prove to be a problem. They could cost the lives of men that didn't need to die. Men that would not be lost if the tower was dealt with now.

Cullen folded up the letter and laid it upon his desk. The matter should not be left to fester. He penned a hasty note to Bull.

The Iron Bull,

I have some work if you have some time. Come to my office if you are interested.

Cullen

Informal and to the point, and most importantly, it was sure to get Bull's attention. Cullen sent it off with a runner and returned to his work.

Sure enough within the hour Bull was standing in Cullen's office, arms crossed over his chest in a way that showed he was secretly pleased as punch to be there.

"So," Bull began, scratching under his chin with his knuckles, "what's this work you have for me and my boys? And uh…why isn't it coming through the Inquisitor I wonder?"

"The Inquisitor…hasn't issued this order to be carried out-at least not by us exactly-but I've done some examination of the mater and I've decided that it may be in the Inquisition's best interest if this issue is handled quickly and privately."

"So we're picking up somebody else's work? Without the Inquisitor knowing about it? Now this is getting interesting…" Bull clucked, with a grin. "What sort of dirty job could convince Commander Cullen to sneak around and break the rules I wonder?"

Cullen's brow wrinkled in annoyance. "We aren't breaking any rules precisely, the Inquisitor wants the job done, he just didn't ask me to see to it personally. My choosing to handle the matter myself may be unusual, but it isn't going against any protocols that are concerning. You should know I would never make such a brash call."

"Alright alright, don't go giving me a lecture on what a pillar of righteousness you are, we all know it by heart by now. So what is this job?"

"I am not a…anyways…You're not very familiar with this area, so I'd imagine you've not heard of the Ereth Tower, just to the east of us."

Bull sat himself in a chair and confirmed Cullen's assumptions with a shake of his head.

Cullen cleared his throat and continued. "I thought not. Ereth Tower is half a day's ride to the east from here. It's practically ancient so we had assumed that no one would be foolish enough to take up residence, but the latest reports from our scouts have noted activity there. No one has yet bothered to discover just who has moved in, but I'm fairly confident in my assessment that our new neighbors aren't the friendly sort."

"So we're not sure who or what is in the tower, but you don't want to waste time trying to see if the scouts can figure it out. Better to just knock on their door and introduce ourselves."

"Something like that, yes."

"Fine by me. Maybe not the most thought out plan, but it'll be quick. When do you wanna move on this?"

"Now. If we ride out now we can be there before nightfall."

"Thinking we can catch them in the dusk? Surprise them? Could work. I like it. How many of my guys do you want?"

Cullen worried his chin with his thumb in thought. "I believe if you bring your lieutenant along the three of us will be a sufficient team for this job."

"Only the three of us?" Bull questioned.

"Quick and discreet."

"Right. Well then…I'll tell Krem we're moving out. Meet you in the stables?"

"Yes, shall we say, half an hour's time?"

"Sure. Half hour, stables."

Cullen chose a dark brown mare called Missye. She hadn't been there long but she was well behaved and a good riding horse. This mission did not require a war horse, so Missye would do nicely.

Krem was already astride a rust red stallion, whose name Cullen forgot but whose wild spirit he recalled.

Bull's horse was, of course, the same as he always rode. The one from the far southern lands, the only one large enough for Bull to ride. Bull hadn't named the horse, naming things wasn't his style, so he simply called it Big Fella, and everyone else went along with it.

The horses were loaded with what meager supplies they would need for the short journey, and the three of them left through one of the less trafficked gates to the east. Surprisingly they did not ride in silence. They chatted quite amiably about battle strategies and which of the serving girls Bull favored most recently, and what techniques Krem was interested in learning from Cullen's men. Bull even drank from a wine skin as they went, not enough to be drunk, but enough to make him pleasant and talkative.

"Right then," Krem piped up, "so just what is this tower we're going to anyways?"

"Bull didn't inform you?" Cullen asked with surprise.

"He told me it was full of one thing or another that needs cutting down, that much, yeah. I meant how come I've never heard of it if it's so old? You Fereldan's love your history lessons, I know that much."

"You probably haven't heard of it precisely because it is so ancient. That and…the locals don't like to talk about it much."

Krem slowed his horse to ride beside Cullen. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Well, the tower has quite a history, like you said."

"What kind of history?"

Cullen cleared his throat and donned his best lecture voice. "Well, the tower used to be attached to a castle keep believe it or not. The castle belonged to an Arl of sorts, maybe someone not even that high in the courts, I can't recall. Well during a war with Orlais …not the most recent one but a much older one…the Arl sent men to fight for the lands that would later become Fereldan. The Arl was too old and too sick to fight in the war himself you see, so he remained at the castle with his family."

"Unfortunately for the old Arl the enemy soldiers found a way through the mountains and fell upon his castle. They intended to use the Arl and his family as bargaining chips for ransomed supplies or negotiations; I'm not certain which exactly. The Arl, his wife, and his two nieces were jailed in the dungeons. The Arl's four children, being only children, were treated with a bit more care, and were kept in the tower."

"And then?" Krem interrupted.

Cullen frowned before continuing. "The Fereldan leaders ignored the ransom entirely. They didn't even show the enemy officer the courtesy of sending a response. He…didn't take too kindly to that. He sent several more threatening requests but got the attention of no one. In the end…he executed the Arl, and his wife, and all the servants and court members that remained in the castle. The few guards that remained behind were drawn and quartered, inside the hall. It was a gruesome bloody affair…"

Bull grunted. "What about the kids?"

"Well…after months with no word from the Fereldan side…the Orlesian officer had the tower barred, boarded up, and bricked over, and he marched his troops further into the mountains. He...left the children inside the tower. Presumably they froze to death…or starved."

"Mother of Andraste…hard to imagine anyone in the world could be so cruel, even seeing some of the shit we see out here…" Krem mumbled shaking his head.

Cullen sullenly nodded in agreement. "It truly is horrible to imagine."

"Well what happened after all that then?" Krem asked.

"The tale only grows more haunting from here I'm afraid. Years after the war, the tower was reopened, some chantry sisters wished to find the bones of the children and lay them to rest properly I suppose. But the bones were never found. Many liked to say 'Ah, well then, proof the children weren't murdered' and the like, but no one could dispute that if not for trapping someone or something inside the tower, why have the entrance bricked over? Surely, anything of value the soldiers simply would have taken with them, they weren't likely protecting anything. They theorized that the smallest three children might have been able to squeeze out the high windows and could have fallen to their deaths but the eldest-"

"Enough Cullen, this bloody history lesson isn't helping anyone," Bull grumbled.

"It's helping give me nightmares at the very least…" Krem griped.

"I only mention the strange disappearances of the bodies because it is said that in areas that are host to such strong emotions and death, the veil of the fade is thinner. People seem to believe this about the tower. The castle was never used again and the keep crumbled and fell away, but the tower remains. People say the ghosts of the children are still within the tower, and it's them that keep it standing. Some claim they have seen the spirits of these children, peering from the windows at night."

Krem groaned. "Commander Cullen, is all of this really necessary? I'm spooked enough, honest."

"It's relevant because I think it points to just what we might be dealing with in the tower."

"Spirits? Fade crap?" Bull growled, trying to sound as if he weren't unnerved by the prospect.

"If some group of bandits or highwaymen were to come through here, I don't think they would be so eager to take up the crumbling old haunted tower, unless of course they were from somewhere quite far away and knew nothing of the tower. Now a group of mages…blood mages, already experienced in dealings with the fade? They might have reason to take the tower."

"Shit, that's good thinking. Good work Cullen…"

Krem frowned. "So you suspect that we're up against blood mages, and you could have bought more templars, but you brought us?"

"I wasn't sure…we still can't be entirely sure."

"But you suspected?" Krem pushed.

Cullen sighed. "I…suspected. But it isn't anything we can't handle. I'm confident on that front."

"That's right Krem, we're chargers, we've got it covered," Bull assured him.

"Whatever you say chief, just doesn't make much sense to me…"

The tower loomed above them, ominously, almost menacing. The tower looked ancient and teetering, not fit for the inhabitance of much more than rats and ravens, let alone humans. Thick gnarled trees encircled the tower, but one could still visualize where the rest of the keep once stood.

"Would you look at that…" Krem muttered. "Covered in thorns and everything, just like something out of a bleedin fairytale."

There were indeed thick black vines of thorns, crawling and curling all about the base of the tower.

"Roses, planted to honor the children after their remains couldn't be recovered. Long dead now…it appears they choked themselves out…grew to tightly together and smothered themselves," Cullen assessed.

Bull cast his eye over Cullen with vague suspicion. "You sure know a lot about this old tower, in the middle on nowhere, that no one likes to talk about…"

"Well, we templars are taught a great deal of history in the order. And the early wars were my favorite topic. Just because I'm no longer a templar doesn't mean I've forgotten everything I was taught…"

"Well," Bull pushed forward, securing Big Fella's reins to a tree branch, "we may as well get to it. Blood mages to kill and all that."

Krem looked from Cullen to Bull with mild puzzlement. "Are we just…walking through the front door then?"

"Take a good look Krem, there's only one way in."

"Right…headlong into untold danger it is then. Lead the way chief."

Cullen tied off his own horse and made ready his blade.

Bull drew up his axe and swaggered towards the tower. "D'you think we should knock first?"

"Do you think they'd answer?" Krem shot back with a chuckle.

"Could the two of you take this a little more seriously?"

Bull grinned and held up a hand in a surrendering gesture. "He's right Krem, pipe down. We wanna take these guys by surprise. They're in a superior vantage point and they've no doubt already seen us coming from a mile away, but let's be quiet in case none of them happen to be looking out any of the windows."

"Bull…" Cullen hissed.

"Alright alright, we'll shut it."

They drew a bit closer to the tower, and all at once the hush of battle fell over them. Cullen let Bull take lead. Common battle tactics often implemented this strategy. Let the reaver go first.

Surprisingly they managed to reach the door without a volley of arrows or spells coming down on them. Bull tested the strength of the lock with a firm push and decided that the old and rotting wood would break with more ease. Bull rammed through the door with his shoulder, horns down. The door caved, and then shattered, practically into toothpicks.

Bull let out a satisfied grunt and brushed the bits of wood from him as Cullen and Krem entered behind him.

"Well, so much for surprise…" Cullen complained.

The three warriors took in their surroundings. The entry way, was stark, devoid of almost any signs that a soul had come or gone since the Chantry sisters searched for the bodies of the Arl's children. The only pieces out of place were the faint glow of fire light coming from deeper within the structure, and the fresh tracks of mud that lead inside.

"Those look like the tracks of a blood mage to you Cul?" Bull asked in feigned seriousness.

"Ha ha. Press on already won't you?"

They cleared the next room. A common area used for cooking and perhaps sleeping, it was difficult to discern however, because it seemed someone had ransacked the entire room. If it had been some sort of food that had once been cooking over the fire, it was now thoroughly charred black and made unrecognizable.

"Well shit. Look at this place…maybe they cleared out already? The fire is pretty low."

"I dunno boss. Place sure doesn't feel empty…" Krem said with a slight shiver.

Bull nodded. "Yeah, yeah…there is a breath to old places like this. Air makes them creak and moan, and every little nothing sounds like something. There is no rhythm to this place. That probably means there are people here disrupting it…"

"People…or something else…" Cullen whispered.

Then there was a shuffling sound, the plod of unsteady feet on stone. A long, crooked shadow crept along the wall, into the room. Krem moved first, positioning himself to flank the probable foe. Cullen hesitated but moved in before Bull, who seemed disinterested in moving at all.

The creature lumbered around the corner and revealed itself to be a man. He had a large burn on his side and strange slashes on his body. He saw Bull and began shouting, raving, in a strange broken way. None of the words that passed his lips made any sense. He appeared utterly mad.

Krem didn't strike first, he almost looked as if he wanted to ask the man what was wrong, but Cullen saw the man carried a mage's staff, alight and aggressive. Cullen raised his blade and cut him down.

It was a solid blow that cleaved between the man's neck and his shoulder. He hardly had the time to scream. What came out was more of a gasp, a gargle, then Cullen ran him through the chest and he went quiet, falling to the floor in a little heap.

Bull relaxed his stance a bit. "The fuck was that about?"

"Was it the red stuff?" Krem asked?

"It's Possible…" Cullen kicked over the body and examined it. "I don't see any physical evidence of red lyrium use…but it could be exposure…"

"Shit…just what this party needed."

"My sentiments as well," Cullen chuffed.

They left the body and moved into the hall. It appeared more intact and less touched than the previous room. Blood from the crazed mage trailed down the hall in evenly spaced droplets.

Bull had been right. There were people in the tower, disrupting its natural rhythm. Cullen could hear them now. The reverberations of voices, the scuffle of feet above, the clamor of fighting.

Bull sniffed the air and snorted. "Something fishy is going down here. I don't like it."

"For sure," Krem agreed.

"Cullen?" Bull said in a manner that indicated he was awaiting instruction.

Cullen nodded. "We had best find out what we're dealing with then."

They moved down the hall. They passed a side room used for storage. Everything within seemed orderly and quiet, so they passed it by. At the end of the hall there were stairs.

The three listened for signs of danger from above, and moved in when they detected none. Just as Bull put his foot on the first step, there came a deafening scream and a fleshy thumping sound. A severed head bounced down the stairs and landed against Krem's boot. They exchanged a grim look and moved forward. At the top of the stairs was a headless corpse oozing blood, and an abomination, a twisted human shape still gripping a great sword.

This time Bull stepped in. He rushed forward and swung his axe. The axe became buried in the creature's chest. It attempted to strike back at Bull but Krem bashed it with his shield and it reeled backwards. Bull brought down his axe again and split the abomination's head. It lurched forward, unable to process the fact that it was dead on its feet, then toppled over.

The commotion drew in two more mages and another twisted figure. A blast of fire smashed into Cullen's shield, which he had raised just in time to cover himself.

Krem readied his own shield and struck out at one of the mages, nicking her arm. She hurled a blast of energy with her staff, but it was poorly aimed and it smashed into the ground.

"The horned one serves the demon! Slay him! Slay him!" shouted the other mage. His eyes were wild and spit flung from his mouth as he spouted more nonsense.

"The hell I do!" Bull shouted, taking a swing at the mage. His first blow didn't connect, but on the back swing he batted the mage with the flat side of the axe and bloodied his head.

Not phased by the gushing wound to his temple the mage continued to shout. "They have come to help the infiltrator!"

The mage blasted Iron Bull with a shot of frost magic. The bolt grazed Bull's shoulder but did no serious damage, aside from forcing him to step back and reaffirm his stance.

Cullen rushed the female mage. She was quick and bashed him quite solidly with her staff. She forced him back with a blast of magic and he felt one of his greaves crack. Pain slowly began to well in his roared and took a wide sweep at her with his sword. He knocked her off her feet and with a second swipe, slit her throat.

The abomination pummeled Krem's shield over and over, not giving him a chance to strike back. The blocking move Bull had drilled him on was coming in handy.

Bull's axe had split the mage's knee and dropped him to the floor. He stomped on the mage's chest and brought his axe down, nearly severing his head.

The abomination, tiring of beating itself against Krem's shield turned on Cullen. This gave Krem the opportunity he was missing and he ran the beast through. He stuck it just below the shoulder blades and angled the blade up, hoping to pierce the creature's heart.

The abomination howled and clawed at its back, twisting and turning, trying to grab hold of Krem. Krem relinquished his grip on his sword and he instead drew his dagger. He plunged the shorter blade just under the beast's back ribs twice and it went down. It writhed and screamed with pain before finally going still.

Krem held the abomination still and retrieved his blade. "So it's blood mages after all. One of your scouts stand to get a promotion out of this commander?" he asked Cullen.

Cullen sighed. "Damn. I'd truly wished for bandits."

"Someone's magic got out of hand here then? Is that what was wrong with the other bastard?" Bull asked Cullen while admiring the sheen of blood on his axe.

"Well, something certainly seems off. Something worse than blood magic gone wrong anyways. Did that one say something about a demon?"

"He did. Asshole." Bull spit on the lifeless mage.

Krem made an attempt to wipe his blade clean on the mage's robes. "Do you think they summoned a demon here? Is that what this is?"

Cullen examined the room for a few moments. "There haven't been any lesser demons about. At least not yet. And if they had summoned a demon wouldn't, they be in service to it? Why would they be so concerned with killing Bull specifically?"

"Maybe they summoned the demon by mistake. That could be the reason right?" Krem offered.

"Could be I suppose…"

Bull shrugged in a doubtful manner. "He said something about an infiltrator too. What do you think that meant?"

"I think it means we need more information before we move on. Spread out, search the room for anything useful. We need to know what we're walking into here."

"Sure thing Cul, but you ought to take some elfroof for that leg of yours. Injury like that can turn bad in a hurry. Trust me."

"Right…I'll see to it."