"You owe me ten gold." Hawke's voice was practically gleeful.

Lenore threw the coinpurse at him, and then gave Brehan a disappointed headshake. "How the hell did he get away from you?"

Brehan sighed. "I got to the edge of the Blackmarsh and the trail simply vanished. Like Loghain's had earlier."

"Except it couldn't have been Loghain, he's dead." Lenore waved a hand.

"I'm telling you what I sensed." He shook his head. "The Inquisitor told me to head back here and see if you'd managed to find anything new."

"We need more than a few days."

He nodded, and then glanced over at Hawke. "Cassandra mentioned you knew a sominari, in Tevinter."

"I might." Hawke raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"We could use information on an orb." He described it. "Corypheus got it from some ruins in the Korcari wild. An elven mage, Varla, was using it to try to summon something."

"What?"

"Lenore?"

"An elven mage."

"Yes." He raised an eyebrow.

"Named Varla?"

He blinked. "You know her?"

"She's Jerath's sister."

Everything in Skyhunter's report ran through his head. "Maker..." He sat down slowly. "She even said the Wardens had taken her brother." What she'd been doing... He started to shake his head. No. No. No.

"No what?"

He blinked at Lenore, surprised that he'd actually spoken aloud. "The demon caught us all in the Fade. All of us except Jerath." He looked down at his hands. "Maker, where does a fifteen year old elf learn to fight like that?"

"Brehan?"

"Varla. In the Wild. She was experimenting with..." He swallowed. "With putting demons into children. She said she'd been successful once before, but the templars had taken her away..." He looked up at Lenore. "Her brother."

The wine glass slipped out of Lenore's hand and fell to the floor.

#

"That must be how he survived killing the archdemon." Lenore paced back and forth. "He was already possessed, so it didn't affect him. And he knew it, that's why he went in." She whirled. "If he's possessed, then Corypheus couldn't have controlled him, right?"

"Anders was possessed." Hawke gestured. "Corypheus didn't have a lot of trouble controlling him."

"So far the only two Wardens we know of that weren't controlled by Corypheus and the Venatori are Alistair and Carver." Brehan ran a hand through his hair. "Both templars."

"Alistair trained Jerath, Jerath trained Carver." Lenore began juggling a small ball of fire. "So if it's the templar thing that makes the difference..."

"Corypheus controlled the mages by using demons." Hawke folded his arms.

"But we don't know what was possessing Jerath." Lenore added a second ball of fire. "We do know that he was stable, a lot more than Anders was. I mean, for crying out loud, Brehan. You punched him in the face and he took it."

"Maker." Brehan shook his head. "That's why he didn't defend himself. He must have been trying to keep it contained."

"In the Brecilian Forest, I asked him how he was controlling the urge to kill all our friends." Lenore shook her head. "He said 'practice'. I thought he was just being a smart ass."

Hawke leaned on the table. "So that's the question then. Did Jerath Tabris disappear because he was hunting Corypheus?" He looked up. "Or because he was an abomination?"

"And what does it mean if the answer is both?" Lenore sent both balls of fire into the fireplace where they caused the logs to burst into flame.

"We saw him in the Fade. Hawke, when you took Anders into the Fade, it was Justice in control. It was obvious he was possessed. Jerath was just Jerath."

Lenore sighed. "He said Varla was taken to the circle when he was six. Possessed that young? It's possible Jerath was never 'just Jerath'."

Brehan sighed. "So what do I tell the Inquisitor?"

"You don't have to tell her anything, Brehan."

"Lenore..." Brehan sighed. "We are dealing with something out of legend. And..." He shook his head. "And the son of Jerath and Morrigan is at Skyhold right now."

"Oh. Fuck."

"Where did Varla get the orb?" Hawke raised an eyebrow.

"Damn good question." Brehan growled. "Fen'Harel ma ghilana. He didn't tell people he had a sister. He didn't tell people he was possessed. He didn't tell people he had a kid. He didn't..." He kicked a chair across the room. "He never even bloody told us how Flemeth got us out of the tower, that she could turn into a Maker-cursed dragon."

"Oh hell." Hawke shook his head. "Flemeth. That amulet. She needed me to get it to Sundermount."

"Marethari." Brehan closed his eyes.

"Morrigan's mother. It all comes back to Flemeth, doesn't it?" Lenore shook her head. "I bet the orb that caused all this trouble was hers in the first place."

"I have to tell the Inquisitor."

"Yeah." Lenore's shoulders slumped. "Somebody should."