The first thing Morrigan realized as the red throb in her head receded was that her back was pressed against cold stone. Something warm and heavy was pinning her to the ground, and her shoulders felt as though they had been scraped raw. She groaned and tried to move, but the weight on top of her was too heavy to shift. Weight... on top of me... Her stomach dropped as the reality of her situation sank in. Oh no. Blast and damnation.

Her worst fears were confirmed as she blinked her eyes and looked up. Cassandra's muscular body was resting comfortably over hers. The position offered her an awkward, intimate view, and judging by Cassandra's swollen outer lips and the wetness covering her own chin, they had been even closer moments ago.

"If 'tis not too much trouble, Seeker, I suggest you move," she said in her driest voice, giving Cassandra's legs a none too gentle push. "You feel even heavier than you appear, and I find it difficult to breathe."

Her words finally sparked a reaction. Cassandra rolled off her in an instant and scrambled away, flailing across the floor in an effort to escape. "Maker preserve me," she gasped, staring around the room with wide, frantic eyes. "Did I... with you?"

Morrigan pushed herself into a sitting position, swiping the back of her hand over her mouth. If the wetness there and the soreness between her legs weren't proof enough, the growing clarity in her thoughts was accompanied by a flood of extremely vivid memories. "As unpleasant as it is to consider, I fear we have no choice but to admit the truth." She gestured between their naked bodies, torn between disgust at her own behavior and amusement at Cassandra's discomfort. "The evidence is too great to ignore."

Cassandra hurried to cover herself as best she could, grabbing her discarded breastplate and holding it to her chest. She shook her head, her sharp features hardening even further with denial. "No. I won't believe it. We did not. I would never..."

"You would, and we did," Morrigan snapped. "I find your company nearly as distasteful as you find mine, but 'tis no use sniveling about it. Lies accomplish nothing."

Her words only seemed to send Cassandra into a deeper panic. She began scooping up the rest of her clothes, trying to pull them on and failing utterly in her haste. "No, no, no," she muttered to herself, a scowl slicing across her unusually pale face. She looked furious and terrified all at once, and completely unwilling to accept their situation.

Morrigan stopped paying attention, too exasperated with Cassandra's behavior to continue listening. Instead, she looked around the room and took stock of the situation. The altar in the center of the chamber had cracked, and the strange green light was gone. Instead, the Inquisitor stood beside the broken slab, embracing a dazed-looking Sera as tears trickled down her cheeks. The elf shook herself, seeming to come around, and Morrigan wasn't certain whether to feel disappointed or relieved. She had never liked Sera, but the thought of being alone with Cassandra in dangerous magic ruins was even less pleasant.

She began to reconsider her opinion a few moments later when Sera pulled back from the Inquisitor and turned toward them. A gleeful grin spread across the elf's face, and the room filled with her raucous laughter. She tried several times to speak, but giggles kept spilling out instead, and she nearly doubled over as she clutched at her stomach.

Morrigan gave a deep sigh and looked over at Cassandra. The Seeker seemed even more horrified than before at the realization that they had an audience. She started to bury her face in her hands, then jerked back in horror when her breastplate fell away from her otherwise nude chest. For a brief moment, Morrigan almost felt sorry for her. Even Cassandra didn't deserve this. "Continue mocking us if you wish, but I promise there will be consequences," she said, aiming a sharp glare in Sera's direction.

The elf's laughter turned to unsteady hiccups, and Herah averted her eyes, attempting to give them at least a little privacy. "Worth it," Sera crowed, biting her lip in a vain attempt to stifle another round of laughter. "Cause I said… And then you actually… Too bloody perfect." She couldn't speak in complete sentences, her every attempt punctuated by fresh guffaws.

The Inquisitor looked at Sera, seemingly unsure if she should say something, but before she could make up her mind, Cassandra exploded. "Maker, Sera, what is the matter with you? Morrigan and I were put under the control of a powerful artifact, one that made us do things we would never have considered otherwise, and all you can think to do is mock our plight. I would think you, of all people, would appreciate the power of magic to twist…"

Her words were stopped dead in their tracks by the sound of Herah clearing her throat in disagreement. The Inquisitor gave the two erstwhile lovers an uncomfortable look, and when she spoke, she sounded equal parts regretful and bemused. "Actually, that's not quite true. The artifact certainly was affecting your minds, but according to the research notes Sera found, it didn't create desires so much as emphasize them. Whatever it was that, uh, you two did, was something that at least a part of you wanted already. The magic just overrode all the reasons you might not do it, like being in the middle of a Tevinter ruin full of demons."

"Or 'cause you hate each other's guts," Sera laughed, but though the continuing mockery annoyed Morrigan, she was more intrigued by Cassandra's reaction.


Cassandra blinked hard as she tried to digest this new information. She knew that her mouth was moving, but all that came out were a series of incoherent protests. "I did not," was followed by "Surely you must have misread," and then, "Perhaps it didn't," before she gave up, slumping down in stunned silence. Distantly, she could tell the others were still talking, but she was too overwhelmed to make out the words.

Could she really have wanted this? She was far from sexually experienced, but had never considered herself a prude, either. She had enjoyed intimacy with her first and only partner, but it was supposed to be the manifestation of a deep and meaningful connection between two people. Not this. Not a sordid tryst on a dusty floor with a woman she could barely tolerate.

And yet, that was exactly what she had just engaged in. As recent events ran rampant through her head, memories of clinging heat and soft skin, of tongues and hands, and so much more, the worst thing was that disgust wasn't the only thing she felt. It's the artifact. These must still be the lingering effects of its magic, warping my thoughts.

Giving up on any hope of dignity after what everyone else had already seen, Cassandra rose from the floor and began gathering up what remained of her clothes. They were a mess, rumpled and torn in places, and the reminder of the intense, needful haste that had left them in that state made her blush anew. Morrigan was similarly engaged, while Herah busied herself examining the now-cracked crystal eye and Sera alternated between shooting glances at the qunari and snickering.

"You have no need for such shame," Morrigan said when their paths crossed at the spot where one of the witch's boots and Cassandra's belt had both been flung. "I agree, t'was unfortunate, but it is hardly the end of the world. Your body had an urge and you satisfied it. 'Tis perfectly natural."

"There was nothing natural about this," she spat back. "It was magic that made me disgrace myself, nothing more."

"That is not what the Inquisitor claims." Morrigan's voice was calm, infuriatingly so after what they'd just been through.

"And magic never goes wrong?" she protested. "I have seen countless examples of spells that didn't work as they were intended to. I am sure this was one of them."

Morrigan gave her that dismissive look Cassandra so hated before giving up and pulling on her skirt. She shouldn't bend over like that. It's so damnably hard to look away from her rear end when she does. Cassandra shook her head furiously. Why am I looking at her that way at all? What in Andraste's name is wrong with me?

Her thoughts veered off course at the sound of a clearing throat. Grateful for an excuse to look away from Morrigan, she turned to see Herah standing beside her at a cautious distance. There was sympathy on the Inquisitor's face, but she wasn't certain whether the look made her feel better or worse. At least Herah didn't seem to think less of her, but she didn't want anyone's pity.

"I think the four of us should leave," Herah said, reaching back to rub her neck. Her evident awkwardness only made the churning in Cassandra's gut worse. "The rift is closed, and the artifact only worked by channeling the Fade energy it released."

"Not to mention you broke it," Sera chimed in. She still looked delighted by their misery, and Cassandra couldn't help shooting a disapproving scowl in her direction. Unfortunately, it didn't even come close to intimidating the elf into silence. "Good thing, or those two would still be at each other's bits instead of each other's throats." Herah gave her a warning look as well, but it didn't seem to discourage her. "I dunno. Maybe you should have kept it. Might have been an improvement, yeah?"

"You do realize what you're suggesting, don't you?" Morrigan asked. Cassandra breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw that the witch was fully dressed. Unfortunately, her clothes still showed a fair amount of skin, but she looked surprisingly presentable considering the circumstances. "Seizing control of another person's mind through magic is something that even I might consider morally questionable, depending on the circumstances."

"But it didn't take over your mind, it just-"

"Enough!" Cassandra snarled, cutting off Sera's argument and glaring at her three companions. Sera's grin, Herah's blush, and Morrigan's bored attempts at normalcy all vanished into nearly identical, slightly startled expressions. "We will leave this place immediately and never speak of what happened here again. Cullen's scouts can check the ruins for any remaining demons and retrieve the... paperwork... Sera found." She paused, waiting for any objections, but none came. "Unless you see any further need to stay here, Inquisitor?"

Herah's eyes widened, and she shook her head. "No! Um, I mean... I can see why leaving might be the, er... the best course of action under the circumstances." She glanced at Morrigan. "You can't sense that weird magical energy coming from this place now, right? I don't feel it anymore."

The witch shook her head. "No. Whatever powers lingered here are gone now. If your Templar's scouts retrieve the books you've found, there will be nothing left here for Corypheus to make use of."

"Good." Without waiting for confirmation from Herah, Cassandra finished snapping on the last buckles of her armor and stalked toward the door, refusing to look at any of the others just in case they caught sight of the fiercely burning flush that colored her cheeks. If she had her way, she wouldn't say a single word to any of them until she had taken a nice, long wash at the nearest camp and confined herself to her tent for several hours at least - and she wouldn't lay eyes on Morrigan ever again.