It's getting dark, Ethan thought looking at the sky. He was on his way home, where he could finally spend some time with his family.

When he finally got there, he couldn't stop grinning. His boy was now almost a year old, and he was perfect., and he wanted to see him since he walked out to go to work.

"I'm home," he said, entering the house. His wife, Illis, greeted him with a kiss. It raised some eyebrows around the neighbourhood, a human marrying a Dalish elf, but he couldn't care less.

They were happy, and that's all that mattered to him.

That was the moment when he heard the screams.

"Come on, Seeker," Varric complained. "Just a little break. There should be a village an hour north, wy don't we stop there?"

"The Inquisitor wanted us to reach Val Royeax as soon as we possibly can," Cassandra replied with a scoff. But, if she was to be honest with herself, the travel wore her out too, and in the village they could probably get some food that wasn't dry and old. "Alright. But we're only stopping to get something to eat."

"I knew you had a heart after all, Seeker." Varric grinned at her, and she had to stop herself from smiling back. She couldn't let the dwarf think she was getting soft on him.

After another hour on marching, they were getting close to the village, and the forest depleted, so that the walking was easier. To their relief, the most dangerous animal they've seen lately were foxes, so both of them tough they were, at least temporarily, pretty safe.

"It should be right ahead-" Cassandra suddenly stopped mid-sentence, her eyes fixed on the sky. Varric followed her gaze and his face fell, as he saw the smoke. He took Bianca from his back and loaded her; at the same time Cassandra drew her sword.

When they got to the houses, it got clear that they were far too late. Very few houses were left standing, and most of them were burned to the ground. Cassandra signalled Varric that she was going to try to get into one of those left. Even though whoever did this was most likely gone, they had to be silent, just in case.

They passed a corpse of a male in the garden and opened the door. What was left of the house was a ruin- the inside was demolished, clothes torn apart and all the people inside were dead.

"Bandits?" whispered Varric at Cassandra, and she sighed.

"It could be. Or it may have been red templars. We should be careful." Varric nodded, and they left the house to go check the next one.

They found nothing new in the next few houses; just the dead and their destroyed property; the food and valuables were all stolen. Finally, they made their way to the smallest of them, standing just a little further from the others. They found two corpses in the kitchen; one of human male, and one of an elven woman.

"Should we leave?" Varric asked with a grim expression on his face.

"Yes," Cassandra agreed. "We shall send someone to bury these poor people later." Just as they were about to leave, Varric suddenly turned around.

"What-" Cassandra wanted to ask something, but Varric shushed at her.

"Shhh! Do you hear this?" Cassandra listened carefully, but she couldn't hear anything. Yet when she turned to Varric, he was already on the stairs.

"Wait!" Cassandra immediately followed him, her hand gripping the swords handle even stronger. If the attackers were still there-

"Ah, there we go. Looks like I was right." Varric's voice was strangely strained, like he was trying not to cry.

"What is it that you found?" Cassandra asked him, but he didn't reply, so she stepped after him into one of the rooms, and there he was, bending over... a cradle?

Oh no.

"Varric?" she asked faintly.

"Looks like we have a survivor after all, Seeker," Varric reached into the cradle and took the child out of it. It was awake, but not crying- instead he watched them with something resembling curiosity.

"What are we going to do with it?" Cassandra asked, trying not to sound desperate. She didn't know a thing about caring for children, and she suspected Varric didn't know more.

"Well, we sure as hell aren't leaving him here." He handed the child over to Cassandra. "Congratulations, Seeker- it's a boy!"