A/N: Hello again. This chapter is a bit longer than normal, so enjoy!

Do leave a review if you like it.

22/03/2018: I've been editing the first three chapters for some errors and tiny details, so feel free to reread them if you're interested.

FFN doesn't allow links, so open this upon youtube before reading:

Hamilton - The Story of Tonight
/watch?v=ihaiRBjv9Cg

Chapter 6: The Story of Tonight

Monster goo really sticks to your armor like nothing else. I was in a desperate need of a shower. Just one problem on that front. Thedas doesn't have showers.

After closing not one, but two rifts in the span of an hour, our whole party was covered in said goo. Everyone except Varric, who had managed to keep his distance. I was so diving into the lake when we got back to camp.

"I wonder if someone still lives here," the author in question said, glancing at the wooden cabin.

"Yep," I answered, and wiped my face with a rag, doing my best to undo the damage. "And we're going to help her."

"Someone important, then?" Varric asked with a raised eyebrow.

I shrugged and walked towards the cabin. "Who isn't?"

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door three times before taking a step back.

There was a brief shuffle from inside, then the door was cracked open just enough for the face of an elvhen female to look through it. She looked haggard, her dark hair was caked with mud and god knows what, and she narrowed her eyes at our party.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"We're with the Inquisition," I said, keeping my tone light. "Just wondered if you needed any help out here. It's not exactly safe, with all the mages and templars running around."

Her face softened a little. "The Inquisition, you said?" she repeated and opened the door wider. "Come in."

I had to bow my head upon entering so my horns wouldn't graze the doorway. The four of us shuffled inside awkwardly. I could see from the elvhen woman's expression that she was surprised to see Solas among us, but she didn't mention it.

"My name is Adaar," I said and then gestured to the others. "This is Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast, Master Varric Tethras and Solas."

"I'm Maura," the woman said, leaning against a table. "I used to live here with my husband, until rogue templars caught him digging out a tree stump. They killed him and stole the ring from his finger, 'in case it was magic'," she spat.

"I'm sorry about your loss," I said, already thinking ahead. "If we find them, would you like it back? We're heading towards Dwarfson's Pass right now, but we'll circle back here eventually."

Maura's gaze went from me to Solas, then back again. "I doubt you'll find it, but... yes. I would like it back."

I shrugged, giving her a small smile. "You never know."

"What was that all about?" Cassandra asked once we left Maura's cabin and she was out of ear shot.

"Doing little things like this will make people trust in the Inquisition," I explained. "Word spreads fast."

"Hmm," Solas said.

I glanced at him. There was a small smile on his lips.

"What?" I asked.

"You say you're doing it for the Inquisition," he said, "but something tells me there's more to it."

"Well, I don't particularly like rampaging templars either..." I trailed off.

Varric chuckled. "So our Herald is a bleeding heart," he said. "It's no secret. First he insists on treating the wounded templars and mages who attacked us, then he takes upon himself to go hunting for food and supplies for the refugees."

I looked at him sharply. "What else can we do right now?" I asked. "Despite the Mark on my hand, we have no support from the Chantry, nevermind the mages or templars. Besides, since we're closing the rifts all over, there's no reason not to multitask. There's four of us, so we can move relatively freely without having to worry too much about the rogue templars or apostates. We need to do what we can, where we can."

"Well said." Cassandra smiled.

I felt my face heat up. "Thanks," I said, "but it's the truth. While we run around we might as well help out. Delegation is useful, but you shouldn't be afraid to do your part of the little things."

"This is some good stuff," Varric muttered, scribbling away in his notebook.

I looked east. "There's an old castle that way," I said pointing. "There's a cult of Andraste that have settled down there. And a rift we need to close."

"That would be Winterwatch Tower," Varric said, looking over the map.

"Then let's go," Cassandra said, but we were interrupted.

"Excuse me," a voice called out. "Have you seen another Inquisition Scout? Elven woman, answers to Ritts."

It was an Inquisition scout, waving at us. We walked closer to him.

"You said your friend is missing?" I asked.

The scout nodded. "She was supposed to be checking on some apostates. I'm on duty here, or I'd go look for her."

"With all the templars and mages fighting, you shouldn't separate," I said, sighing. "If you wait here, we'll go through the other pass over there, just in case she decides to come that way," I said and pointed past the trees towards where I knew a corpse of a noblewoman would be waiting for us. If I wanted to recruit that one agent in the castle, I needed the letter she had in her pocket.

Varric and Cassandra exchanged looks, which I ignored.

"Thank you, sir," the scout said, saluting. I wondered if he somehow recognised me, or if he was just being polite.

Once we were out of ear shot, Cassandra looked at me disapprovingly. "Why are we going this way?"

I shrugged. "I just remembered something. We might as well go this way first."

Varric was looking at the map with a thoughtful sound. "Hmm..."

I peeked towards the map. "Oh, is there a cave this way?"

His expression soured. "How...?"

"I just remembered that as well," I said, grinning. "Your face reminded me."

"What a peculiar way to remember something," Solas said.

I glanced at Varric, and airquoted, "'You know, not every dwarf likes caves'".

He grimaced and rolled his eyes.

There was indeed a cave there. It looked like some poor bastard had been camping in there, but they had been attacked. Maybe by bandits, maybe by templars or apostates. On the dead dwarf's body there was a mysterious letter about the hidden treasure beneath the waterfall. I already knew what it was about, so I wasn't too interested, but Varric read through it with a thoughtful expression on his face.

There was also a chest there. We took what was inside, marked down the location since there was some iron veins in the walls of the cave, and then continued on our way without a word.

Just minutes later, we came across yet another body. This time it was the body of the noblewoman.

"Mages and templars, and innocent people caught in the middle," Varric muttered. "Some things never change."

I looked through the woman's pockets, and as I expected, found a letter adressed to her.

"My Lady Vellina," I read, and started grimacing the futher I got into the letter.

"I know you're frightened, but the light in the sky shouldn't scare you. It's the eye of the Maker, finally coming back to take the faithful to the Golden City. Leave your father's servants and come up into the hills, away from the pointless fighting between the templars and mages. Let me introduce you to Speaker Anais. She'll explain everything, and we'll be together and happy, waiting for everything to be right in the world.

Your love, Lord Berand."

Nobody spoke.

"We should let him know she's dead," I said, looking up at Cassandra. "This idiot deserves to know he's the reason his lover is dead. 'Leave your father's servants', really? What kind of an idiot is he?"

Cassandra was frowning. "This Speaker Anais must be one of the cultists in Winterwatch Tower."

"Yeah," I said. "I have to say these people seem batshit crazy to me. Who the hell joins a cult?"

"People who are scared out of their minds?" Varric suggested.

I sighed. "Yeah. Let's keep going. I can't wait to meet them."

It didn't take long until we got into another fight. A bunch of mages ambushed us as we went through a bottleneck formed by the rocky hills.

"We're not templars!" I yelled. "Stand down, please!"

"I don't think they care," Varric grunted.

My maul swung towards one of the mages and I spun. The mage lost his balance and fell flat on his back, and I assumed he was down for the count. But as I turned around to attack the others, Solas yelled out, "Don't turn your back!"

I glanced back, and noticed the mage glaring at me, about to cast a spell. I didn't have time to react before an arrow pierced his neck and he fell back down, blood gurgling from the wound. I looked away.

"Shit, Feathers," Varric said. "He almost got you."

I frowned, and hit another frozen mage with my maul. After the fight died down, Cassandra, Varric and Solas gathered around me.

"You need to be more careful," Cass said. "Don't turn your back to your opponent unless you're sure they're either unconscious or dead."

I wiped my maul with a rag. It came out bloody. "Yeah, sure."

Varric sighed deeply. "Let him be, Seeker. He's still learning. Besides, we're all here to watch his back."

"True," Cass amended. "But we might not always be there to help you. So please, be careful."

I looked at her. Damn, she was right.

"Alright," I said. "I'll be more careful in the future."

We could see the a smaller tower from where the fight took place, so we headed that way. We could have just climbed the hill towards the Winterwatch Tower, but it was really steep, so we went inside the smaller tower to take the stairs instead. There was a chest there, which Varric handily lockpicked open for us. Some gold, materials and a shield.

"You need this?" I said, handing the shield to Cassandra, who took it with a curious look.

She inspected it, then gave it back to me. "It's a decent shield, but mine is better."

I nodded, then looked at Varric. "Is this worth carrying with us to the castle and selling it to someone?"

Varric raised an eyebrow, but took a look at it. "Hmm," he said, "sure. It won't get us much, maybe one gold at most."

"Alright," I said, standing up straight. "Then I'll carry it. We can never have enough gold for supplies."

That got me an amused chuckle from Varric.

The stairs seemed never ending, I noted as we started our trek upwards. But to my surprise the extra shield didn't seem to affect my speed in any way. Damn, superior Qunari bodies with amazing strength. I could only imagine how strong the Iron Bull was. The guy could probably bench press 400 lbs easily.

"So, we're supposed to meet with some Chantry clerics in Val Royeaux after all this," Varric started innocently as we walked. "You ever been there?"

I cast him a hard, long look. "What do you think?"

"You said you've read stories about us," Varric pointed out. "But last time I checked, nobody learns terrain and locations from stories. It's something you have to see for yourself."

I stopped walking. The others, who were walking behind me stopped as well.

"It's complicated, okay?" I said, glaring down at Varric. Of course the old 'I read about you in books' story wasn't going to fly with all of them. I knew that. They weren't stupid.

"Varric has a point," Solas mused, causing me to shift my gaze towards him. "It's something I, too, found peculiar. Your knowledge far exceeds what one might read in a book of fiction."

"I get it, okay?" I sighed, "I know it's fucking suspicious. But I wasn't lying. I just didn't tell you all of the facts."

"Why?" Cassandra asked, her arms crossing.

"Because you wouldn't understand," I said, gritting my teeth. "It's something that doesn't exist here, despite all the magic and shit. I've told you. Where I'm from, we have technology. With that technology we can create whole worlds. It can show us stories so realistic, it's almost like we live through them ourselves."

"That sounds...beautiful," Solas said.

"Impossible, more like," Varric said good naturedly. "Are you sure you aren't talking about plays? Where bards and other professionals act out stories? Because we have those here."

I swatted him slightly on his shoulder. "You know I'm not."

"Alright," Varric said. "So you have ways to experience stories. But that doesn't explain the terrain."

I shrugged. "In some of the stories, we have freedom to go around as we like and learn about the environment as much as we like. This was one of them."

Varric blinked. "Huh."

I started walking up the stairs again. "I said it's complicated."

"No, that actually makes sense," he said. "Since you said there are several versions of all the stories, and how you knew what had happened just by learning Hawke's full name."

I looked at him sharply. Did he figure out that the player effectively was Hawke? I don't think they would like that idea.

"Having choice to go around as you wish would affect the story," Solas butted in. "So that means there would be several versions of the same story."

I smiled thinly. "Right. You got it."

I really didn't want to go into the discussion about free will, or the lack of it with them. Seeing as demon possessions were a real thing here. If you thought about it, none of the characters in Dragon Age games ever truly had free will. You could manipulate your party members with gifts and look up dialogues in order to get the best reactions out of people. Not to mention the main character who was part of the world and had a background, history and relationships in the world, but was entirely controlled by the player.

With thoughts of free will roaming through my head, we reached the top, and followed a path towards the Winterwatch Tower. At the end of the path stood a red haired woman in long, dark robes. She must have been the Speaker.

"I know you. They call you the Herald of Andraste, for what you did at Haven," Speaker Anais said. "But are you? The Maker has not told me."

"I don't know," I told her honestly.

"As I suspected," she said, frowning. "Stories of you mastering the rifts are just blind heresy."

"No, I can seal rifts," I corrected her.

"Then prove it. Show me that the rifts bend to your will. The will of the Maker. Show me the power you wield."

I narrowed my eyes. "This cult... What are you doing here? What do you think is happening?"

"The Chantry has fallen," Speaker Anais said. "And shown its imperfection in doing so. The Chant of Light was a lie. It was arrogance to think that mortal lips could frame the Maker's will. So we wait in silence. The Maker has opened the sky. Soon He will call his chosen back to the Golden City."

I pursed my lips. "We'll talk more later."

She nodded, "Until the Maker brings you back to us."

The gates opened up, allowing us to enter the Winterwatch Tower. There were cultists milling about, some were praying, some were simply sitting or walking around. Despite their matching outfits, it was obvious that many of them were refugees.

"I suppose it's only natural that some would turn to worshipping the Breach," Solas said quietly. "If only on hopes of appeasing it."

I nodded, and looked around. To our right was a tavern, and straight ahead was the rift. We had been walking and fighting for hours now, so I gestured towards the tavern and unsurprisingly, everyone agreed. Since there was only one table downstairs and it was taken, we went upstairs. We sat down and dug into our backpacks for rations.

As we ate in silence, a young man with a dark short mohawk and purple robes approached our table.

"Excuse me," he said. "While you were coming up, did you meet a young noblewoman with blonde hair and pale green eyes? Lady Vellina should be here. We need to be together when the Maker comes."

I exchanged glances with the others. Cassandra nodded at me.

"We found her body," I said bluntly, and reached into my pocket. "She was carrying this letter."

The young man paled. "That letter..." he said, his face crumbling. "Vellina is dead? But... We were meant to be together. The Maker would not keep us apart! What am I suppose to do now?"

I felt pity for him, although it was entirely his fault his lover was dead. Besides, he was a nobleman... "If you have connections, then you can help the Inquisition to restore order."

"I..." he said, hesitating. "Yes. If waiting here in the hills leaves innocents to die, then I will spread the Maker's word by the sword. My men and I will lend our strength to the Inquisition. Thank you".

He bowed to me, and walked off to join his friends.

I was left speechless. "What...what the hell just happened? I didn't tell him to take up a sword and fight. Frankly, with that letter showcasing his idiocy, I'm worried about letting him anywhere near sharp objects."

Cassandra hid a smile. "I agree. But do not worry," she said. "Once he gets in touch with Haven, they will direct him where he's needed the most."

We rested for a while, and everyone was content on watching the cultists bustle around in silence. But eventually it was time to move on. We got up and headed towards the rift towards the back of the building. It was located in what looked like a courtyard, except it was underground, so there was no sunlight.

As soon as we descended the stairs, the rift flared up and two lesser terror demons popped into existence.

You are aware of my love for terror demons, right?

But surprisingly enough, this time the fight went quickly and unlike last time, I didn't get thrown on my backside even once. Maybe it was because I had gotten used to fighting, or maybe our party dynamics had shifted because we were familiar with each other's fighting styles. Whatever the reason, the fight was over almost as soon as it started. My companions focused their attention on the demons, and I took the opportunity to close the rift as soon as they were all defeated.

"Take that, you fugly sons of bitches!" I yelled and pumped my fist in triumph.

"Fugly?" Varric laughed. "You say the strangest things."

I grinned at him. "Let's go talk to Speaker Anais. I'm sure she'll want to... speak with us."

Varric's chuckles echoed around us all the way there.

"Maker's tears," Speaker Anais said. "I was a fool to have doubted you. How may we serve you, Herald of Andraste?"

I had pondered about this choice for a while. In the game, recruiting the cultists under Leliana or Josephine would help the war effort and give you more experience and power. But this wasn't a game.

"Help the refugees," I said. "Many of them are in need of food and shelter from the rampaging mages and templars. That's the least you can do."

Anais bowed to me. "As you say, Herald of Andraste. Some few will remain here, the rest will go forth and do your will. When the Maker calls you to your greater purpose, remember that we served you."

I nodded, and walked away, only slightly freaked out by her.

"Are we heading out?" Solas asked. "There is a vendor over there."

"Oh?" I asked, looking. "Right, for the shield! We can buy some more rations as well, if they have any."

"Let me handle the haggling," Varric muttered.

"Sure," I grinned at him. "You be the traveling merchant, I can play your Qunari bodyguard."

To my annoyance, the vendor recognised me. "You must be the Herald of Andraste," he said. "You are welcome to any of my wares."

"Was it the horns?" I asked, "or the glowing hand of doom? No matter." I sighed. No fun roleplaying for me. "We're looking to sell this shield and buy some rations."

He took the shield from me. "Hmm," he said. "I'll give you two gold."

"It's worth at least three," Varric huffed. "If you won't buy it, we'll find someone who will."

"Alright." The man frowned. "Two gold and fifteen silver, then."

"Two gold and twenty, and you got a deal," Varric said.

The vendor had been glaring at Varric, but then he glanced up at me and nodded. "Deal."

After we bought the rations and walked away from the vendor, I gently poked Varric. "Earlier you said we could maybe get one gold for it," I reminded him.

"You always start with a price higher than your target," Varric said like it was obvious. "That way the more you give in, the more your opponent thinks they're winning."

I nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense."

"What, no haggling where you're from?" Varric asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cassandra and Solas turned to look at me, interested.

"Not really," I admitted. "When you go to buy something there's always a set price. If you try haggling, people think you're either an idiot or disgustingly frugal. Unless it's something really, really expensive. Then you might get a small discount. Even then the original price is highly inflated and the seller knows it, and that's why they allow you to get away with it. You'll feel better about your haggling skills, and are more likely to buy something from them again."

"Can you give me an example?" Varric asked.

I thought about it. "Well," I said, "if you were to buy a modern equivalent of a horse carriage. The original price might be 150,000 euros. But the seller knows it's not really worth that much, and will allow you to haggle it down to 125,000 euros. You feel accomplished, and yet the seller still wins."

"How much is an euro?" Varric asked, already reaching for his notebook and quill.

"I'm not entirely sure what the exchange rate would be," I admitted. "I haven't gotten the hang of gold and silver yet."

"We should compare the price of a similar object," Cassandra said.

I turned to look at her. "Huh, good idea," I said. "Let's see... How about a mug of ale? I know the average cost is roughly 2,5 euros."

Cassandra turned to look at Varric.

"Hey," he said, "I'm sure I'm not the only person who knows the price of ale here."

Solas smirked. "No, but you are the kind of person who would pay attention to it."

Varric huffed. "Fine," he said, "I believe the current average is 2 silver."

"Huh," I said, surprised. "That would make the exchange rate 1 silver to 1,25 euros."

"We can draw up more comparisons later," Varric said. "I've got to admit I'm curious."

We were heading towards the gate when I suddenly stopped walking.

"There is a young elvhen man somewhere here among the cultists," I remembered. "His parents live at the crossroads. We need to find him and tell him his mother is sick."

"You didn't even talk with any of the villagers," Solas pointed out.

I just shrugged. I didn't need to talk to the guy's father to remember this quest. I had completed it fifty times, at least.

Cassandra sighed. "Where is he?"

I pointed towards the top of the tower. "Somewhere up there? I think. I don't remember his name. Just that he knows how to make the potion his mother needs."

Solas nodded. "We'll find him."

And we did. The young man, Hyndel, was of course really worried for his mother.

"What? She was fine! She hasn't had breathing trouble in..." He trailed off. "Alright. I can help. Here, I have some already made. Take it to her now!"

And so we were on our way, finally leaving the cultists behind us.

"Do you hear fighting?" Solas said.

I nodded. "That must be the missing scout! Quickly!"

We ran to her aid. She was fighting two templars. It didn't take long for the five of us to defeat them.

"Thank you," Ritts said. "If it weren't for you, I'd be dead." She paused, clearly avoiding to look at the elvhen woman who was lying dead on what appeared to be a picnic blanket. "Do you need anything? I should probably report back."

"This is a mage," I pointed out.

"Eldredda, yes," Ritts said. "I think that was her name. At least, I'd heard other apostates call her that."

I looked at her pointedly. "Looks like someone was having a picnic."

"Yes, the mage... must have been hunting for blood magic. The templars attacked the apostate... I suppose I got caught in the middle."

I stared at her more, and raised my eyebrow.

"So, the truth," Ritts confessed. "I might have been, um, passing time with Eldredda."

"You were trying to find a moment's peace in the midst of this war." I sighed.

"We were... yes. At first she was just a mage who saw me and didn't attack, but later, we..." Ritts trailed off. "So, are you going to report me?"

I glanced at Varric, and nodded my head at him.

"Look kid, if you can talk an apostate out of their pants in the middle of a war, you've got a gift. Use it," Varric encouraged. "Make contacts, get information, and help the Inquisition. Do that, and our lips are sealed."

Ritts looked surprised. "Alright... I can do that," she said and looked at me. "And thanks, for going easy on me."

I grinned. "No problem. But first, how fast of a runner are you?" I asked.

At her questioning look, I took out Hyndel's potion and handed it to her. "I need you to take this to the Crossroads as fast as you can. Hyndel's mother has breathing problems and she needs it now. His father should be outside one of the buildings there, looking for someone's help to get a message to his son. This is of the utmost urgency, do you understand?"

A look of understanding bloomed on her face. "Yes, of course, sir. I'll leave straight away. Thank you again!"

We watched as she ran off.

"Quick thinking," Solas said. "There are yet more rifts here that need closing. We wouldn't be as fast as a single scout."

I smiled. "Exactly. In fact, there's one just downhill from here."

And of course it was the goddamn rift with the Rage demon that always ended up killing me, even those times when I played on easy mode. A shiver went down my spine at the thought. There was no game over this time. Just death.

"... Maybe let's not close that one quite yet?" I said, scratching my neck. "We should hunt some rams and head back to camp before it's dark."

Cassandra nodded. "We only have couple of hours, then. The sun is already getting low."

"We should be able to catch enough on our way back," I mused.

"Why leave this one for later?" Solas questioned as we walked.

I swallowed, avoiding his gaze. "Um... It's a big one?"

There was a silence.

"You're afraid," Solas breathed out, as if in wonder.

I glared at him. "Okay, yes. I'm scared to death! Is that what you want to hear?"

Cassandra touched my shoulder gently. "It's alright."

I pushed her off. "No, it's not!"

We stopped walking.

"You don't get it," I said, my eyes burning. I avoided their gazes. "This is for real. I've died closing that rift so many times I've lost count. A huge rage demon comes out of it, and it almost always kills me with a single hit. I'm not taking that risk until I know we're ready for it."

"Feathers..." Varric murmured. "We can close that rift later. We'll just have to warn everyone not to approach it until then."

I looked at him, then chuckled wetly. "Shit, Varric. I hope you're not banking on a new bestseller detailing the life of the Herald of Andraste, because nobody wants to read a book with a cowardly main character."

"Nah, it just brings more authenticity. The readers will love that," Varric said and smiled. "Now, let's see about those rams, shall we?"

I took a deep breath. "Yeah."

Solas sidled up to me as we walked.

"I didn't mean to upset you," he confessed. "You haven't shown much fear since closing the Breach. It...surprised me. I apologize."

I looked at him. "Oh," I said. "No, I'm sorry for blowing up."

He inclined his head. "Do you know how many rifts there are left in this area?"

I quickly counted them in my head. "Uh, on top of the one we're not closing, just one," I said. "Why?"

"If we close one of them, the veil here should become more stable than it is now," Solas said. "That gives us more time before we need to close the last one."

I nodded. "It's past that hill over there," I pointed towards the way we'd come through to the pass. "I'm actually surprised we didn't run into it on our way here."

"Then we should close it before we head back," Solas said.

Cassandra, who had apparently been listening, agreed. "We'll be in less of a hurry to come back here."

"If we manage to get some horses from Master Dennet, then the next trip back here will be much quicker," I added.

"Shh," Varric hushed us. "There's couple over there." He pointed to two rams grazing some distance away from us, and took out his bow.

I glanced at Solas, seeing as he was our only ranged specialist in addition to Varric. "Help him out?"

He nodded, and gripped his staff.

They aimed and shot, and the two rams went down. Varric's target struggled for a moment longer, but it had stopped moving by the time we had walked over to it.

"We need couple more," I guessed, looking at the size of them. "Surely the pelts will be of some use as well?"

"It will take time to prepare them," Solas said, "but yes."

We only walked for five or so minutes until there was that feeling in the air again. I was just going to call it a rift sneeze from now on, okay?

"There's the rift," I said, "And if I remember correctly, it has more terror demons for our enjoyment."

"Just keep your guard up," Varric said, "And focus on closing the rift. We'll focus on the enemies."

I nodded. After freaking out about the Rage demon, I must have been looking uncertain. "Roger that."

There was one green wraith and one terror demon at first. As we got rid of those and waited for the rift to burst again, two more terror demons appeared. As they were both occupied with fighting the others, I took the oppoturnity to turn to the rift and pull it close.

It closed with a bang, sending the two terror demons on their asses, where they were met with arrows, ice and a sword respectively.

"Good job guys," I grinned. "We can start heading towards the camp now. Just keep your eye out for templars, since there should be at least one group of them left here."

"The group with the ring?" Solas questioned.

"Yep," I said. "We're going that way, so I wanna find that ring and return it."

I didn't need to wait long, because as soon as we were nearing the place where Ritts's scout friend had been, we were attacked by a group of three templars. Solas froze one of them, aided by Cassandra's trusty sword and shield, and Varric shot the second in the knee. That left me with the third one.

The templar and I circled each other for a moment. Then he attacked with a roar, attempting to bash me with his shield.

I was beginning to suspect these templar idiots were all addicted to lyrium, because that was just sloppy. I sidestepped him easily, and swung my maul at his legs, toppling him over. He fell, and rolled on his back. I kicked his sword away from his grasp and put my right foot, along with most of my weight, on top of his chest.

"Did you and your buddies kill an elvhen man around these parts?" I asked casually.

"I–," the templar grunted, his eyes darting left and right. "...what?!"

"Now," I continued with a smile, "I suggest you think really hard. He was digging out a tree stump. His wife told me you even stole his wedding ring from his cold dead body."

"He was an apostate!" the templar wheezed out.

I gripped my maul harder. "Wrong answer." I hit him with enough force to knock him unconscious, and dug through his pockets. I couldn't find it.

"Looks like this one was holding all the valuables," Varric said, gesturing to his opponent, having riffled through the man's bag. "Is this the ring we were looking for?"

I walked over to him and took it. "I'm not sure," I said, and showed it to Solas. "Is this Elvhen?"

Solas took a short look at it and nodded. "Yes."

"Well, then." I huffed. "Looks like we found our culprits."

Cassandra walked up to us. "I think your opponent is still alive," she pointed out.

I grimaced. "If we leave him here, he'll just attack someone else. But I'm pretty much convinced all of the templars around here are addicted to lyrium. It's a sickness, so it doesn't feel right to kill all of them either."

"He admitted to killing that man," Cassandra said. "As much as I admire your capacity for forgiveness, we do not have enough resources to capture every templar and mage we come across."

"Prisoners need to be fed too," I said, sighing. "You're right."

"Would you prefer if one of us did it?" Cassandra asked hesitantly.

"No," I said, my mouth turning downwards. "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

"That is a quote, Feathers," Varric muttered. "I can feel it."

"Are you going to wake him up?" Solas wondered.

"No," I said, putting my maul on my back and reaching for a knife I had hidden in my boot. "He already had his say."

Funny how much your morals can change in the course of a week. But that was the reality in Thedas. Not everyone could be saved.

As we made our way towards Maura's cabin, none of us said a word. The dusk was about to break, so we didn't have much time to linger.

"Maura?" I called out, knocking on the door twice. "This is Adaar."

The door opened and Maura looked at me, surprised. "You came back."

"I said I would," I said with a small smile and offered her the ring. "Here, we found this ring on one of the templars."

"This is it!" Maura said, her eyes shining slightly. "Praise to you and the Inquisition for giving my husband justice. It won't bring him back, but it his spirit will rest easier now, as will mine."

I nodded, and we left her to be. On our way back to the Crossroads, we managed to kill two more rams. We also spotted two supply caches, marking their location on the map so that the scouts could come get the supplies tomorrow.

Finally, we were back. And we were immediately accosted by an elvhen man, who really, really wanted to meet the Herald of Andraste.

"Which of you is he?" the elvhen man asked, "Please, I heard he was with you. I need to thank him personally."

I raised my hand to wave at him. "Uh, hello?"

The man's gaze zeroed onto me. Then onto my horns. Then back to my face. "You're the Herald? No matter," he said in wonder, and dropped to his knees in front of me. "I wanted to thank you. An Inquisition scout brought me Hyndel's potion, and said you sent it. Without you my wife would be dead!"

Uh.

Help?

I grasped his arms and lifted him back on his feet. "You're welcome," I said. "But there's no need to thank me."

"What?" the man said, "You're the sole reason my wife is alive! She developed breathing problems today, worse than ever before. I was trying to find someone to send a message to my son, sure it was too late. That's when that scout appeared out of nowhere, carrying my son's potion. It's a miracle! I never even had time to ask for a messenger."

Cassandra, Solas and Varric all turned to stare at me.

"Umm," I started, "Well... I had a dream about it last night. That's how I knew?"

The man's eyes widened.

"Please," I said quietly, hoping like hell that this wouldn't backfire on me. "Do not speak of this to anyone. I just wanted to help."

He nodded fervently. "Yes, yes, I promise. Thank you!" He bowed deeply at us, and he was gone as fast as he'd arrived.

"This will spread," Cassandra pointed out. "I think you knew that, even as you asked him not to tell."

I sighed, and looked up towards the darkening sky. "Yes."

"I'll send a raven to Leliana," Varric promised. "We should get on top of the rumors so we can control it."

"Let's try to keep it to small things," I said, suddenly feeling very tired. "We need people to underestimate us."

"Herald of Andraste," Varric mused as we made out way to our camp. "The Seer of Small Details. It has a ring to it."

I rolled my eyes. "I foresee myself accidentally hitting a dwarf in my sleep, if he doesn't stop with the Herald-ing."

"As you wish, Feathers," he grinned. "You know you'll always be the mercenary who doesn't know how to pack to me."

I smiled, and hoped that truly would be the case. After the Herald became the Inquisitor, it felt like Varric's interactions with him went from friendly to polite. Almost like the big title and responsibility the Inquisitor was forced to carry made Varric out of reach for him. And it always made me sad, since Varric was one of my favourite people in Thedas.

After dinner, I decided enough was enough. If there was no showers, I would damn well have a bath. Last rays of the sun were dipping beneath the horizon as I stripped naked and stepped into Lake Luthias.

Varric was accompanying me and dutifully looking away until I was submerged from waist down.

"You can look now," I said with a shiver and turned around. "Your less than innocent eyes are safe."

The water was freezing, but I would rather freeze than run around covered in demon goo.

Varric turned his head from where he was sitting on top of a large rock. "Why did you insist I came along again?" he questioned.

"In case of bears," I said and rubbed a piece of soap over my arms. "If you go beyond this lake, there is a veritable beehive of bears in the forest. Makes sense some of them might wander over here as well."

"You only use me for my crossbow," Varric teased.

"I have an eye for beautiful ladies," I snarked back and ducked down to wash my hair.

I couldn't stand the cold water for more than couple of minutes, so I washed up quickly and ran back to the shore. Varric was holding out a large piece of linen cloth, and averting his eyes again. I took it gratefully, patted myself down and quickly got dressed.

"Where were you two?" Cassandra asked when we returned.

"Feathers wanted to take a bath," Varric said with a smirk.

"Isn't the water freezing?" Cassandra questioned with a frown.

"Yep," I said, "but I'm used to bathing nearly every day. A bucket and a rag just won't do it for me."

"The Herald of Andraste was a fancy noble," Varric muttered. "Interesting."

I rolled my eyes. "It's just custom," I said. "Nothing noble about it."

Solas made a thoughtful noise from where he was sitting. "I too prefer bathing," he said. "Alas, lakes like this one are usually a rare sight."

Poor Solas. I'm pretty sure Ancient elvhen gods were pampered with as many hot baths as they would like in a day. But now the Dread Wolf had to live like the rest of the common folk.

As we sat around the campfire that night, I sang a song from Hamilton.

The Inquisition scouts, who hadn't travelled with us and therefore hadn't heard any of my songs, stopped what they were doing and curiously gathered around to listen.

I may not live to see our glory
But I will gladly join the fight
And when our children tell our story
They'll tell the story of tonight

Let's have another round tonight...

I smiled at all of them, and raised my mug of pitiful, watered down ale.

Raise a glass to freedom!
Something they can never take away
No matter what they tell you...

I looked at Varric, Cassandra and Solas.

Raise a glass to the four of us
Tomorrow there'll be more of us
Telling the story of tonight
They'll tell the story of tonight

Raise a glass to freedom!
Something they can never take away
No matter what they tell you...

Let's have another round tonight
Raise a glass to the four of us
Tomorrow there'll be more of us
Telling the story of tonight

Let's have another round tonight
They'll tell the story of tonight

Raise a glass to freedom
They'll tell the story of tonight

They'll tell the story of tonight...

By the end of the song, most of the scouts had started to sing along, since the lyrics were simple and the tune was easy. Varric too. If Cassandra and Solas sang, I didn't hear them. Maybe they just hummed along. But as the last notes hung in the air, I noticed that everyone was smiling.

It was a good ending for a long day.