"You're back!" Orsino said entering the room excitement in his voice.

"Yes" Meredith said quietly "I have something to show you. Come here." He stepped over past the table to her side. She grabbed his hand and lay it on her stomach.

"What am I feeling here?" he said having a sneaking suspicion.

"I've quickened." she said quietly as if to not upset him. Very out of her character for her,

"What?" He said eyes widening "You are...?"

"With child" she said reluctantly.

There was silence. You could almost feel the anxiety pulse off Meredith. Orsino struggled to think of an appropriate response.

"Its mine?" he said stumbling over the words. Dammit he shouldn't have insinuated such a thing.

"What kind of woman do you think I am?" she said clearly put off. He sighed.

"I did not mean that, I...just... I'm not sure what to make of this."

"I'm having the child. I have to I'm nearly five months along its too late for whorehouse tea."

"But what of the child? What if they look like me? What are you going to do?"

"I will take a leave of absence. Say I am going to Highever to take care of my cousin and his wife... and their new baby. My 'cousin' will happen to die along with his wife. Leaving the child in my care."

"You've definitely thought about this. Is there... any chance I may come along?"

"No! Of course not it'd would be suspicious. Well even more suspicious then what it already is. This child looking like you has me terrified clearly it won't look exactly like you as the child will be human but its just..." She stopped and sighed. "I just hope they look like me."

Meredith arrived back in the Gallows one evening in late Drakonis of the new year.

She held the tiny baby tight as she ordered her assistant to get a wet nurse.

"Ser, Where do you even find a wet nurse?" the young Knight said

"Void if I know ask for a midwife they'll probably know." she said curtly.

"What is the child's name?" the assistant asked peering over the edge of the bundle.

She shifted and attempting to cover the child's face again. Not knowing why people will eventually realize the baby looked like her.

"Her name is Vika Stannard, she is my cousins daughter. My fathers brothers grandchild."

"Your cousin must've looked like you Ser, she could be yours."

Meredith dismissed him and yelled for another Knight.

"You, go into Hightown and get a bassinet and a cradle. You will be compensated."

She retired to her quarters and lay the baby on the bed. She squirmed and began to fuss.

"I can't feed you yet a stranger might come in and catch us." she said quietly rubbing the girls cheek.

Her assistant knocked on the door shortly after.

"Knight Commander." said the young woman who looked bedraggled "Its nice to meet your acquaintance. Is that the girl?" she said gesturing to the bundle on the bed.

"Yes" she said

"Will you be needing me at all hours, just the night or just the day." the woman asked.

"Just the day."

"You will nurse her at night?"

The Knight standing at the door looked uncomfortable.

"No" she snapped. "she isn't my child. She is my cousins child who was left in my care."

"Oh sorry I just assumed."

"Well don't. I will be subsidizing with goats milk at night."

"Okay, I will come by your office at sunrise then,"

"Yes, that sounds good I will see you then." as they were finishing up the other Knight brought up a small wooden crib.

"I left the bassinet in your office is that okay? I can go get it and bring it up." he sputtered

"That was where I had intended to put it, thank you."

She dismissed the two Knights and the wet nurse and closed the door.

She settled back on the bed and unwrapped the baby. She changed into a loose nightgown and lay back on the bed and began nursing the infant.

There was a knock at the door and she prepared to cover herself.

"Who is it?" she shouted startling the baby.

"Me" Orsino said through the door.

She heard him open the quarters door, close it. and lock it behind him. He rapped on the sleeping room door and opened it slowly.

He was surprised to see the little baby nursing on his lover.

"Is it?" he asked reluctantly

"A girl. I named her Vika."

"After my grandmother" he said with a smile.

"Yes." she said not looking up at him.

"May I hold her?"

"In a few minutes, wait until she is full."

He slid into the bed next to Meredith and kissed her neck.

"There we go she's done."

He held out his arms and she lay the babies tiny form in his arms.

"Careful of her neck." He held to his chest and rocked her slightly.

"She is so small."

"She has gotten a lot bigger since she was born. She was exceptionally tiny."

"She wasn't early?" he asked concerned.

"No, it wasn't possible and she didn't have the breathing issues premature babies have," He smiled and brushed his fingers through her blonde curls.

"She looks like you." He kissed the babies head. "I have never felt such joy and happiness." He said smiling.

"It's called love." she whispered as if ashamed. He kissed her.

"Want to put her in the crib?"

"Yes" she said pulling off her nightgown.

He lay the baby gently in the crib and returned to the bed.

They continued playing family for a couple years. Things fell apart shortly after Orsino was made First Enchanter.

She stopped letting him see Vika.

"She's old enough to repeat what she sees I can't have you in here."

He took it very personally.

When Vika was six she knocked on the door of Meredith's office.

"Auntie? Can I ask you about something?" she said

Meredith looked up from her paperwork.

"What is it little one?"

"Is my family my real family?"

"Where did this come from today?"

"One of the girls at the school at the Chantry said I was probably a bastard."

"That's not true. Your father..." she started to panic.

"Is he really my father?"

"Of course."

"I don't believe you."

She left the room and ran off.

Meredith caught her head in her hands.

'Oh no she started to doubt the story. What will I do if Orsino tells her. She likes him more then me she'd more likely believe him.'

Four years later Vika paid Orsino a visit.

"First Enchanter." she said closing the door behind her.

"Vika. Hello, what brings you here today?"

She walked over to his desk reached out her hands and a small flame danced across her palms.

"Makers breath." he said astonished

"You can't tell Auntie, she'll make me join the Circle and I don't want to do that. I know shes trying to annul the Circle even if that didn't happen I know about things. I know what a Harrowing is and I don't think I'll be able to do that." She sputtered very quickly.

"Calm down, breathe. We'll deal with this. I have been putting money aside since you were a baby in case something like this came up. We'll get you out of here and hide you somewhere Meredith can't find you. Anywhere but here."

"Why did you think I'd be a mage? Why did you put away money for me? I know you and Auntie used to be friends but."

"We were more then friends. I... I am your father." Her blue eyes bugged out of her head.

"But my father was Willis Stannard from Highever my mum was Flora Stannard."

"A lie concocted when you were barely a quickening in your mothers womb."

"Meredith is my mother?" her eyes widened.

"Yes, child, but we can't have that getting out."

"Sweet Andraste."

"Shhh, we might keep this a secret between you and me while I figure out where to send you."

"Okay."

He immediately started writing letter to his sisters who were spread among alienages across Thedas. One in Ansburg where they grew up, one in Cumberland and one in Val Rouyeux. He begged them to take his daughter. He received letters back from all of them and only the one in Orlais agreed to help him. She, Ophelia, took the sum of money he sent her and travelled to the Free Marches.

He collected Vika in her bedroom in the converted store room down the hall from Meredith's quarters. He smuggled her down to the docks hexing several Templars on the way.

"This is you Aunt Ophelia. She'll take care of you I promise."

She threw herself at him burying her face into his chest.

He held her tight as he did ten years prior and felt the same elation he did then. He had to lie to her since she was old enough to comprehend what a father was. He had to.

"I love you. Never forget that." he said his voice husky.

"Tell Auntie...Mere...My mother I love her." she whispered.

He let her go and she left never to be seen by him again.