There was something cold and wet nudging my face. There was no such thing as sleep at camp… Little naps here and there, yes sometimes, but a full nights rest? Who was I kidding, that would never happen. I grumbled for a few seconds before sitting up to scratch Snookums on the top of his head. Every time I see this dog I think back to when we found him… It took me weeks to think of a name. I'm sure Snookums would have preferred something more manly. Actually, Alistair tried to convince me to name him Rufus and Zev wanted me to name him Solders Bane after the poison. As much as I loved that dog, he was dumber than a box of rocks.

I guess I couldn't stay abed forever, with the blight looming and all, so I went about my morning rituals. I dressed in my least tattered robe, brushed out my long hair, ate some bread and cheese, and then greeted the other camp members with an overly-cheery smile. The only other person who was as cheerful as I was had to be Leliana than again she was always happy, I think. As we broke camp she would always sing. They were songs of battle and glory, or love lost and hearts broken, and sometimes she would sing of the things we had done over our travels. As her melodic voice went on in the background all I could think about was the tower. Even at the distance we were there it was like a black shadow taunting me with memories of Jowen… of Cullen. Of course I knew Jowen had to be safe for the last I saw him was when he told me I had to come back here to save a child.

Connor, he was the son of the Arl of Redcliff, a young boy who had started to show signs of magic. His mother, who was fearful of her child being taken from her and sent to the tower, hired an apostate to teach him to hide his power. That worked out badly because now we are on another trip to another place to try to get one thing done… This seems to always happen to us. I wondered where Cullen was or if he thought about me at all? He probably didn't, the way I left him with not a word to him. It had been three long years since I had been to the tower, I would always put off coming here. Thinking that it would be our last stop after we got the Urn, but here we were only a half days walk from the place I used to call home. With a sigh we set off towards the Tower.

When were got closer to the dock I felt like a child again. Not knowing what to expect once I was there, scared, confused, and wanting to go home. I now thought of our ever growing group of misfits as my home, my family. Even Morrigan who was hard to get along with at first, but now I considered her a dear friend maybe even a sister. We walked arm in arm giggling about something one of us said, Alistair shooting us outrageous looks, Sten as stoic as ever, and Leliana humming in the background. We were all halted by a Templar at the dock.

"Hey you, you're not wanting to get across to the tower are you?" Carroll asked.

"Uh, yeah we are…" I said giving him a confused look.

"Oh well I was told not to let anyone across, The Tower has been locked up, no one gets in or out," He informed me.

"But I'm here on Grey Warden business. I have the papers to prove it!" I almost yelled in frustration, I kept wondering what was going on at the tower.

"Let me see those… Oh the Grey Warden seals, so you're pretending to be one of those, are you? Well I have papers here saying I'm the queen of Antiva!" He laughed.

"Aren't queens female?" I asked rolling my eyes.

"Don't speak that way to royalty!" He snapped.

"There must be something we could work out?" I pleaded with him.

"Well that dark eyed temptress over there, the Tower would be too boring for her. You could leave her out there with me, it gets lonely out here." He smirked looking at Morrigan.

"Oh, I have been looking for new prey!" She said with mock glee.

"Prey?" he asked sounding scared.

"You could all get in the boat; we will have to row ourselves across the lake because, the boy will not have use of his eyes or his limbs." Morrigan said with a chuckle.

"So, you want to go to the tower? How about now? Let's go now. NOW," He pleaded with me, his eyes filled with terror. Good job Morrigan, I thought to myself, than nodded being almost dragged to the vessel by a frightened Carroll. So here we were in this boat, the great shadow of a tower looming ahead, and my thoughts still seemed to gravitate towards Cullen. Please be happy to see me… I don't know if I could stand it otherwise! The thought struck me dumb, could it be that after years of being away that one Templar had so much power over my emotions. I knew my fruitless flirtation with a certain ex-Templar would do nothing to stifle those feelings I still had for Cullen, but even now, did I still love him as much as I did when I left? The bigger question was, did he still love me? Or had he ever loved me at all?

It was hard not knowing if the man you loved for years and still loved to this day, had any feelings for you at all. I sighed when the boat came to the dock, I guess this is it. The moment of truth… My mind was at war with my heart, and yes I knew about the bigger picture, about how my minds inner dilemmas paled in comparison to grand scheme of things, but right then I didn't care.

"Are you ready? You look as if you're going to cry." Alistair said in a worried tone. It made me smile that he cared at all.

"Yes, I would say she looks a tad greenish." Morrigan put in looking leery.

"Guys, as much as I don't want to be here and feel as if I will reach at any moment, I'm fine and would like to get this over with. We have a child to save!" With a trembling hand I opened the front doors to the tower.

Oh how things had fallen apart, the knight-commander informed me that the tower was overrun by abominations and demons. He wanted to see the Right of Annulment. With that right the Templars would go through the tower and kill everyone and everything. I could not let that happen. What if there were innocents, I could not let them soak my home in the blood of innocents and defenseless children. So we were locked in the tower, sent to reclaim what the Templars had lost. This is where we found Wynne a mage I met at Ostagar before the battle. She was the grandmotherly type, with her I felt as if I were at home and could confide in her. We cleared the tower up until we reached the Templar's quarters.

It looked a lot different than I had imagined it would, aside from the fact it was in ruins, I expected it to be some grand living space. Instead it was modest and just not what I wanted it to be. We worked our way through most of the rooms on this floor, when we came upon a sloth demon.

Once the door was opened and everyone filed in almost instantly the air seemed to shift around us. My eyelids felt as if they were weighed down and my limbs were filled with sand. Maybe just a short rest here would be good? My mind asked, I wanted to cry out in frustration but it seemed too much work.