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We finally get to meet the Inquisition! I'm a hardcore Solasmancer but I'll try my best not to put unnecessary ELVEN GLORY in the story haha.

"Have you heard about something called an 'Inquisition'?"

Karliah looked up to see Micah and a few mages returning from Redcliffe with supplies. It was amazing how easily people overlooked them when they weren't in mage robes and carrying giant sticks. Micah practically skipped back into the cavern while Karliah was teaching a group of children meditation techniques.

She glared at him from where she sat surrounded by a ring of the younger students, legs crossed, back straight, breathing slowly. Micah's obnoxious voice interrupted all focus, making the students giggle as Karliah scowled.

"Alright kids," She sighed, "Go to your next teacher."

The kids jumped to their feet and parted ways, a few walking over to Shanelle's alchemy station, a few leaving to practice elemental magic, while others went to a makeshift fighting ring to be coached on how to use their staffs in battle.

She sighed inwardly. Still children and they were being trained for battle. Worse, there was a high probability that they would be caught up in the Mage-Templar war sooner, rather than later.

She wondered if the outside world even bothered to remember that half the Circle population was under twenty. Still only children but the world wanted to brand them all.

Karliah turned to Micah with a raised brow. "Now, what were you saying?"

"It seems that in response to the disaster at the Conclave, a few of the Chantry members have resurrected the Inquisition banner."

Karliah blinked in surprise at that, having only skimmed over historical texts from that time period.

"And now some madman is going around claiming to be the 'Herald of Andraste', sent to deliver us from the giant hole in the sky which they're calling 'The Breach'. All very ominous sounding, eh?" Micah chuckled as he scratched at the rough fabric of the tunic he had worn into town. He winked at her as he pulled his knapsack forward and flash a bottle of ale hidden inside. Scamp.

"And how did you find out all this?" Karliah asked him as she began to walk towards the simple tents that the mages had acquired from the surrounding area, entering her personal one for a little privacy.

Micah followed her through the flap and threw himself down on her bedroll, making her sigh in exasperation. "I snuck into town and started drinking with some of the new guys. Played some cards, asked some questions."

"You missed your calling as a bard." Karliah told him dryly as she sat across from him.

"I know, right?" Micah chuckled as he leaned back on his elbows, eyes sparkling with fascination. "But get this! The herald is a fuckin' mage!" He let out a bark of incredulous laughter. "Can you believe it? The irony!"

Karliah felt her eyebrows pull together. "Really? Interesting. What does this Inquisition want? What is the purpose of this herald?"

"To ban the faithful together in our darkest hour?" Micah made a heroic pose before he pulled out the ale and uncorked it with a twirl of magic. "Their mission statement is to restore order to Thedas where the Chantry failed. The clerics are calling it heresy, but the common gentry are supporting it. The Chantry lost control of us and the Templars, and now they've lost the trust of the people."

"As they should." Karliah snorted, snatching the bottle from his hand and taking the first swig. "They're all just posturing idiots in fancy robes, no better than any other politician."

Micah pouted as she handed the bottle back to him, taking his own sip. "Word is that he's a Free Marcher, like us. Some noble brat with sparkle-fingers."

"You'd be surprised at how many of those there are." Karliah quipped, as she reached for the bottle again.

"Anyway," Micah continued as the bottle continued to pass back and forth between them, "They've already established a foothold in the Hinterlands, and have taken control of the Crossroads."

"Does that mean we can't go there anymore?" Karliah asked with a frown.

"As long as we continue to pass as refugees we'll be fine." Micah shrugged. "From what I hear they have been trying to contact the rebel mages and Templars for help closing the Breach."

Karliah gave a long sigh. "The Breach? Where would we even start?"

"Dunno." Micah muttered as he took another gulp of ale. "Maybe we could just throw you into the Breach, being half spirit and all. See what happens."

"Ha. Ha." Karliah muttered as she swiped the bottle back and sipped. Only her four companions knew about her spirit friend, and jokingly began to refer to their ragtag group as Ramu Spiritu, a pun off of the branch of magic that specialized in spirits and the friendly parasite in her head.

That had not been an easy conversation to have. She had been three or four months into the fight, when her refugee group was still less than ten people. Micah and Orphin had already joined her when they had run into a particularly large group of Templars attacking two more mages. Micah and Orphin attacked while Karliah ushered her charges to safety, and went to help the mages that had been pinned down when they arrived. But Karliah had been caught off guard when a several Templars dispelled their magic at once, momentarily leaving Karliah severed from Dawn and rendering her Tranquil.

It took a moment for Dawn to claw its way back into her head, and in that time, she had been standing listlessly in the middle of the firefight, deaf to the warnings of her comrades. Shanelle had been one of the mages that they had rescued that day, and seemed to realize Karliah's Fade connection the moment she reverted to Tranquil. Shanelle had dragged the apathetic girl out of the line of fire and into the trees where she began restoring her connection to the Fade with some kind of shaman juju. By the time Shanelle had returned Dawn to Karliah, Micah and Orphin had approached her, demanding to know what had gone wrong.

At first, they were all astonished and skeptical about her predicament. They had heard rumors that there was a way to reverse the Rite of Tranquility, but spirit possession? It was hard to believe. Shanelle was the first to accept her predicament, being a seer that was familiar with spirit possession herself, although seers only allowed spirits in temporarily.

Only after Karliah had removed the bandages around her forehead to reveal the brand of Tranquility did the others begin to believe her story. Micah was fascinated, while Orphin was wary. They prodded her further with questions about Dawn, and what the spirit was like, how it felt to be Tranquil, and then restored.

Hadir had joined them later on, and after earning his place as a primary guardian of their refugees, they eventually told him as well. It was kept secret from the rest of the mages, but most of them seemed instinctually know that Karliah was different. Fade-touched, as many mages would call it.

Karliah let out a disappointed sigh as she lifted the bottle to her lips and found it empty. "Damn."

Micah chuckled. "Don't sweat it. I'll grab another the next time in town."

She pinned him with a scolding look. "You are too reckless, sometimes."

"Says the one who's possessed." He quipped, making her roll her eyes.

I am not a demon, stupid human. Dawn sniffed in indignation.

Karliah was quiet for another moment before getting to her feet. "Let's go talk to the others about this Inquisition and decide what our next move is."

The Herald of Andraste…

Cedric Trevelyan had always lived an easy life. He was the son of a well-to-do noble family, the second son with lots of wealth and no responsibility. When he discovered his magic at ten he was elated, freed from the pressures of joining the Chantry to appease his pious family. The Circle was a wondrous place for a curious child, though being stuck inside all day did put a damper on things. He had made new friends, people from all walks of life, no longer limited to the socially acceptable circle of high society.

He met Karliah soon after his arrival to the tower. She had just passed her harrowing and had begun an apprenticeship with a spirit mage and started on an ice specialization. She was a friendly girl, slight and willowy, quiet most of the time but had a sharp tongue when pushed. She had been one of his closest friends in the tower, helping him become acclimated to the new environment and scolding him when his noble attitude got the better of him. He was quite handsome, and he knew it, with tanned skin, aristocratic features, bright blue eyes and shoulder-length raven-black hair pulled into a messy ponytail. Karliah and their other friends were always dragging him away from spats with scorned lovers and angry teachers.

One day Karliah disappeared without a trace, the Templars spewing some excuse about how she had attacked a templar and ran away from the Circle. The mages in the tower knew better than to believe them. That particular templar had been eyeing poor Karliah for some time, and dread pooled in his stomach at the thought of what might have really happened the night before.

Years passed and the absence of Karliah became a dull ache in the back of his mind. Their friends were similarly affected, eyeing Templars with disgust, sticking closer together at all times, no one walked alone in the tower. Their mistrust of the Templars soon spread to others in the Circle as rumors about Karliah's disappearance grew to immense proportions. Some said she had been killed by the Templars, others thought she had been sold into slavery for mouthing off.

Cedric and his friends eventually reached the top of their class, Cedric somehow being chosen to be apprenticed to the First Enchanter despite skipping classes, flipping skirts, and taunting Templars. He didn't really know why First Enchanter Conrad chose him. Perhaps it was his raw power, perhaps it was his noble connections. Despite his initial hesitation to take on such a role, Cedric eventually found himself growing close with his mentor and flourishing under his tutelage.

When the mage rebellion broke into an all-out war, Cedric and others in their tower were not surprised. The incident in Kirkwall meant that the Circles in the Free Marches were the first to fall, and many in the Ostwick tower were all too eager to turn their backs on their templar jailers. Despite rejecting the templar's presence the mages of Ostwick did not scatter like other Circles, and eventually made their way to Ferelden to witness the decisions made at the Conclave.

And then the sky tore open.

"I have some interesting information about the mage rebellion." Leliana stated as the advisers congregated around the war table with Cassandra and the Herald.

"I thought that they were holed up in Redcliffe?" Josephine tilted her head.

"Half of them, yes." Leliana said, then leaned over and tapped the northern ridge of the Hinterland valley was on the map. "But from the latest information I've gathered, there are actually two mage factions. The newest faction is hidden somewhere along the northern ridge, but they have been hard to pin down."

"Wonderful…" Cullen muttered.

Cedric raised his eyebrows at that. "Really now? Do we know why?"

"There was some sort of disagreement among the leaders of the rebellion." Leliana told them, ignoring a muttered 'of course there was' from Cullen. "The northern faction is calling themselves 'Ramu Spiritu' but other than that, I have no more information on them. They are quite reclusive."

The commander raised his brows. "Ramu Spiritu?"

"It means 'spirit branch' in old Tevene." Cedric told him. "It's is the official language of arcane scholarship. All magical research is written in Tevene."

"Reclusive, you say?" Cassandra asked skeptically. "You mean to say that they are not the ones terrorizing the citizens of the Hinterlands?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Leliana nodded. "Though there are rumors that they are linked to the White Witch and the Four Horsemen."

"Huh?" Everyone in the room blinked in confusion.

She glanced at Cullen with a cautious look before continuing. "The White Witch and the Four Horsemen seem to be an elite team of battlemages deployed by the Rebellion that specialize in templar hunts. It is led by a female mage with white hair, and four apostates with unique skills. They seem to be feared by both mages and Templars alike."

Cullen and Cassandra had dark expressions on their faces.

"If they are being deployed by the Rebellion, I doubt that they would be part of the pacifistic group." Josephine pointed out.

"Let's approach Ramu Spiritu first." The Herald mused. "Maybe they can give us some insight into what the mages are up to in Redcliffe."

"Agreed." Cassandra nodded, surprising him.

"I still think that we ought to try to reason with the Templars." Cullen piped up.

"They do not want to speak to us." Josephine interjected with a frustrated look. "They will not even accept our messages at this point."

"Then we shall continue to pursue the mages." Cedric said, quite pleased and having no intention of allying with the Templars. Cullen was nice and all, but in Cedric's opinion, the rest of the Templars could rot. He wisely did no mention this in front of the commander and the Seeker.

"Back to the Hinterlands, then?" Cassandra glanced at the mage.

Cedric groaned at the thought of the journey through the Frostbacks and his poor butt sore from riding. "Maker have mercy…"

Demons.

It had to be demons.

Karliah scowled from her perch on the mountain side, laying low on an outcrop and hidden behind bushes as she spied on the strange green rift that had popped up a little too close to their base for comfort.

She knew that the veil had been badly frayed due to whatever happened at the Conclave, but tears appearing in the physical world with demons popping out of them were bad. Orphin, Hadir, and Shanelle had accompanied her while Micah had gone back into town to spy on the Inquisition forces there.

Orphin and Hadir were currently trying to get a read on the rift, whispering fervently under their breaths about magical theory and veil measurements. Nerds. Shanelle was doing her best to figure out how the demons were retaining their physical shape in this world without possessing a living creature.

It is Fade and yet not. Dawn whispered in her head, staring at the rift through her eyes with confusion. Broken. Twisted. Wrong.

Karliah's eyes glazed over with silver as she peered at the rift with her Fade-vision. In the Fade, it looked like a sickly swirl of black and green, a dark hole hungry and angry, swirling lazily. She could feel Dawn balk at the sight, the spirit murmuring fearfully as it retreated as far into her mind as it could to escape the sickly magic that surrounded the tear.

"Dawn doesn't like that thing at all." She murmured to her companions. "The spirit fears the rift. It says that the magic has been corrupted."

"But how are the demons manifesting themselves physically?" Shanelle frowned, clearly frustrated that she could not figure out the answer. "Even if the rift pulls them through to this world, they shouldn't be able to manifest without possession. But I do not sense any corrupted flesh. They have not possessed anything here."

"I'm more concerned with how to fix this." Orphin glanced at the rift apprehensively. "If we can't close it, more demons will keep coming through. Thankfully, it seems that they cannot stray too far from the rift without losing their physical forms."

A distant yell drew their attention. A group of fighters – two mages, a warrior, and a dwarf – were attacking the demons at the rift.

Hadir tutted. "What do they think to accomplish? More demons will keep coming through. They will be overwhelmed."

Despite his words, none of them made a move to help the strangers. Mages knew better than most how quickly people turned on you. They had no reason to risk revealing their magic to a couple of idiotic adventurers.

"That woman fights like a templar." Orphin frowned.

"Indeed, she does." Hadir agreed, the two women nodding as well.

Shanelle tilted her head. "Yet she fights with two mages on her side."

"Maybe they were captured and persuaded to help." Orphin sneered.

"I don't see any other Templars around." Karliah pointed out. "Plus, there's that dwarf. No, these are merely adventurers."

"Soon-to-be-dead adventurers." Hadir snorted as another wave of demons exited the rift.

Suddenly, the tear in the veil began writhing, distorting, churning. Karliah's eyes widened as she activated her Fade-vision and saw that the rift was healing. Her eyes followed the line of magic that flowed out of the rift to the source of the healing power, a man with a green hand holding it up, palm out to the tear.

Better. Dawn hummed in her head. It does not hurt anymore.

'A mage?' She exchanged shocked looks with her companions. 'What kind of power is that?'

Then he yanked his hand away, cutting the connection between himself and the rift. The tear in the veil was mended, sealing shut with a whoosh of magic. The last of the demons disintegrated without their connection to the Fade, and the strangers relaxed.

"What the…"

They all had their mouths hanging open.

"Did he just… seal the veil?" Orphin blinked.

"I wonder what kind of magic that was." Shanelle's eyes glinted with greed, "… And how attached he is to that arm."

Karliah gave her an exasperated look. "I'm assuming physically attached."

Shanelle stuck her tongue out.

"We should head back to the base before that templar woman catches our scent." Hadir interrupted them, hawkish gaze locked on the warrior of the group.

Three of them turned to leave, but Karliah did not move.

"Karliah?" Orphin raised his brows expectantly.

She remained at the ledge of the mountain, looking down on the adventurers with her arms crossed, a thoughtful look on her face. "You three go back without me. I think I will follow them."

"Why?" Hadir asked, wrinkling his nose in obvious disapproval.

"That mage with the glowing hand is tied to the Fade." She told them. "I want to know how, why, and what they are doing here."

"To seal the rifts, duh." Shanelle muttered.

Karliah shook her head. "No, they are combing the land. Searching. See how they spread out as they walk? Scanning the land around them? They came here for a reason."

The other mages hesitated.

"I am more likely to be seen if you accompany me." Karliah told them, shooing them away. "Go back to the camp and tell the others not to worry about the rift anymore. And make sure no one wanders out of the caves while these strangers are still in the area."

The three of them nodded at her and turned to leave. Karliah hopped down the rock and slid down the mountain side, landing in a crouch, her staff thumping against her back. As she straightened she pulled on the veil and wrapped it around her, her form fading, flickering, less noticeable to others. Then Karliah set off in the direction that the adventurers had gone, following the trail of indented soil and broken twigs.

She remained far enough behind them so that their forms were but small figures on the horizon, not wanting to alert the warrior or the rogue, which were more likely to sense her. They stayed apart from one another, spread out and glancing up and down the mountains. Looking for a cave perhaps?

A cold feeling slid down her back. What if they were looking for the Ramu Spiritu camp? How did they even know to look here?

They were bearing weapons, and it made the spirit defensive. Dawn bristled at the thought. The mages were under its protection. Strangers are not welcome. What do they want?

Karliah frowned, suddenly studying them with a calculating look. A glint of light caught her eye, and a glance up revealed templar bandits had staked out on the ridges, waiting to ambush the group unawares. She counted fifteen, maybe more, far too many for the four adventurers. She crouched in the brush and crawled closer.

A silent signal rippled through the ambushers as they crouched and waited for the strangers to walk into their trap. Then a yell ripped the air, and the Templars converged upon them.

"Halt!" She heard the female warrior cry out. "We are not apostates!"

"I don't think they care, Seeker!" The dwarf scoffed as he began firing off volleys of arrows from a rather impressive crossbow.

'A Seeker?' Karliah furrowed her brow. She'd heard that name before, but she could not remember where.

"Protect the Herald!" The elf mage ordered the woman as he cast a barrier around them.

'The Herald? As in the Herald of Andraste?' Karliah wondered. 'They must be with the Inquisition, then'. A name that was on many lips, these days.

That man is Fade-touched.Dawn whispered in her head. But his is different. In his arm, not his head. No spirit, but something else.

'Okay…' Karliah frowned. Spirits liked to talk in circles, don't they?

Squares. Dawn huffed, a feeling of amusement rippling through her.

Of course, she got stuck with the sassy spirit that had somehow developed a sense of humor. She had no idea where Dawn had learned it. Certainly not from her. Maybe from Micah?

Karliah's attention was drawn back to the battle as the four companions fell back, badly injured and losing quickly. The Templars were closing in on them. Karliah counted six dead on the ground, two engaged with the warrior, another two slamming their shields against the elf's barrier spell, one had been paralyzed by the human mage – or the Herald, she supposed – and the dwarf was in the shadows, picking out the vulnerable spots in the templar armor. Back up was coming for the Templars however, as two Templars attacked from the front and suddenly the four adventurers looked nervous, and two more popping out of the bushes behind them.

"We need to retreat!" The elf cried. "They will overtake us soon!"

"And go where?" The other mage snapped. "They have us surrounded!"

'Should I help?' Karliah wondered. The apostate in her immediately said no, self-preservation came first. But then she remembered that this 'Herald' was the only person capable of closing these tears in the veil, as far as she knew. Could they risk that? Could she?

The Herald glanced back at the Templars flanking them, and Karliah caught her breath. 'No… Impossible…'

His face was familiar. Tanned skin, blue eyes, dark hair, square jaw and aquiline nose. He was older now, it had been years since she had last seen his face, but there was no mistaking his identity.

'CEDRIC?!'

You know him.Dawn's words were somewhere between a question and a statement. She could feel the spirit dive into her memories, searching for the familiar face. Oh. Friend. From before.

Well shit, guess she had to help now. She felt Dawn's amusement grow into excitement as she shifted to grab her staff and enter a battle stance. Magic flowed through her veins, roaring through her like a tidal wave, as she called upon the energy around them.

Kill the Templars.

Quick note:

'Karliah thinking'

Dawn talking

Dawn & Karliah thinking together

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