The Chantry door swung open, jarring sunlight revealing the parlor tricks behind the illusions onstage. The Maker's beard was held on with a string. The ropes securing Andraste to the Pyre were attached with buttons. The magical twinkling that served as a musical theme to divine occasional visits came from a contraption of bells and wires beside the stage powered from an apparatus behind thin red curtains.

As soon as the door crashed open, the dozen or so audience members from Wildhaven turned to look. The blinding sun outlined a dark silhouette in the door. A huge sword stood sheathed behind a pair of elven ears, these poking from a tuft of white hair over a surprisingly slender male body with bare feet.

"Anders," Fenris said in a droll tone. "Somehow I knew you would be here."

It was not Anders who turned belatedly to assess the silhouette. Blue eyes burned from a face that cracked as the head turned, light streaming from open fissures. A dual voice spoke the words.

FENRIS. OLD FRIEND.

Fenris unsheathed his sword with a metallic scraping sound. He stepped forward, snarl now visible in the dim theatrical lights. He gripped his sword in both hands, facing down the aisle. "I am not your friend!"

The audience panicked, a single scream piercing above a startled rumbling and a half dozen angry shouts. Women snatched up their children. Men stood in front of their wives instinctively to shield them. A pair of older patrons ran straight for the door, ducking behind Fenris on their way out.

Fenris took another step forward, formally recognizing the patrons' need to evacuate. To stall for time, he stalked the center aisle slowly, raising the point of his sword as Justice retrieved his staff and stepped into the elf's path to face him. Fenris gracefully dodged a young man dashing down the aisle to escape.

Anders' head jutted forward, seeking out the weakest among the fleeing crowd. Fenris feared he was considering taking a hostage or two as a bargaining chip. "Stay where you are, demon," he warned.

IF YOU INSIST.

The demon held its hand out toward the pew to his left, bending down. A human child of maybe eight years took the hand fearfully. He was old enough to sense danger but too trusting to infer its source. The demon straightened once the child's hand tightly grasped his own, ushering the boy closer to his legs. Blond hair peeked from behind the spirit's trousers, brown eyes fearful above an upturned nose.

I WILL MAKE YOU AN OFFER.

Fenris stood tall, appearing almost uninterested in the child. "Why bother? You know my answer."

DO I? I WOULD NOT SAY I KNOW YOUR HEART.

The demon squeezed the boy's hand hard, causing him to wail out and try to wrench free. Neither combatant noted the quiet departure of the three actors who composed the small theatrical troupe.

A FAIR TRADE. JOIN WITH ME. I WILL LET HIM GO.

Fenris shook his head, noting the palpable tension in the air when the demon asked to join him. Instead, he turned his nose up at the offer. "You will have to do better than that, abomination." He stood his ground, unwilling to negotiate for a hostage, sure that an inch given would be taken as license for more.

THEN DO IT FOR YOURSELF. TOGETHER WE WILL BE INVINCIBLE.

"Pfah! Look at you!" Fenris gestured with his sword at the cowering boy. "You're a public menace, demon. If you see so little value in life, you will not hesitate to sap mine as you did to Anders."

ANDERS IS WEAK. HIS HOURS ARE NUMBERED.

The spirit craned his head into a beam of light created by small knothole in the Chantry roof, his shoulders bending at an unnatural angle. Fenris blinked at tears of blood running down the spirit's face.

ONLY YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH HE NEEDS.

As if to provide his point, Justice gestured with his free hand. The curtains on the right of the stage blew aside, one of the poles falling over entirely. A strange apparatus was revealed. With a wiggle of his fingers, Justice sent a wind blowing downwards, forcing the chains into glass containers below. Gears shuffled, scenery moving on the stage. Simultaneously, twinkling bells rang out in many discordant tones. Finally the last electrical charge made its way across the chain to the representational pyre. A small cutout painted like flames rose to cover the bottom of a pole coiled tightly with more metal.

The young boy began crying in fear at the commotion, his free hand covering his ear as he knelt lower. Fenris shifted on his feet, unsure what the magical dramatics portended. His concerns were answered when Justice cast a lightning bolt at the chain leading to the pyre. The sparks flew along the coiled metal around the pole, around and around with increasing strength as the chain lightning flowed. The bells clanged and fell, colliding into the pyre. Metal props began sliding towards the pyre as the electricity reached the midway point. By two thirds down, Fenris was struggling to hold onto his sword from halfway across the room. The boy tried repeatedly to pull his hand free, but his attempts were in vain.

DO YOU SEE? YOU ARE QUICK TO REACT. STRONG OF ARM.

Justice cast another spell, this time an entire storm of lighting with a bolt centered on the pyre. Fenris was forced to release his sword, watching with horror as it flung itself through the air to clang loudly against the pyre on the theater stage. His entire body was now in danger of being pulled in by virtue of the armor on his chest and arms. Fenris yelled in pain, the lyrium in his skin lighting briefly in response to the magnetic pull. He tried to leverage his feet ahead of him to combat the pull, but it proved too strong. He clamped the points of his gauntlets onto the side of a pew bench and held on for dear life.

"Give it up, Justice," the warrior yelled. "I will never join you!"

STRONG OF WILL. WE ARE ALIKE, YOU AND I.

Fenris scrunched his nose in disgust at the demon. "Don't flatter yourself!"

Justice's only smiled coldly. His eyes changed slowly from their usual ethereal blue into a deep violet and finally to an angry red. The change heralded a momentary weakness, during which time the young boy pulled his hand free and beat a quick retreat through the door. A woman outside sobbed in joy at the sight. She pulled him away while a burly man in overalls slammed the Chantry doors closed.

IT IS NO FLATTERY. JUSTICE SEES ALL. IF YOU ACCEPT MY OFFER, I WILL GIFT YOU ANDERS' MEMORIES. YOU CAN CHANGE HIS MIND AS I HAVE DONE. HIS WILL CAN BE YOURS. HIS LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS.

"And why would I want it?" Fenris lost his footing, his lyrium embedded feet now scraping along the floor towards the stage. "He's a dead man walking. I can barely stand his presence after what he did."

YET YOU ARE HERE.

"I came to kill him," Fenris explained. "And you!" Despite his brave words, one of his gauntlets was pulled forward following the application of another volley of lightning on the pyre. Fenris cried out at the strain. With concerted effort, he drew his arm back up and clamped his fingers over his belt.

YET IF YOU DID NOT INTERVENE, HE WOULD DIE JUST AS SURELY.

"I know my duty," Fenris rumble, his eyes defiant. "I swore an oath. I will not fail with Anders again."

NOW IS THE TIME TO BREAK YOUR OATH. THROUGH ME, YOU WILL COMMAND HIS MAGIC.

Fenris craned his head back up to look into the demon's eyes. "You would offer to make me a mage? Impossible." He was shocked to see the red pupils, the distraction his undoing as his gauntleted second hand scraped down the bench until there was no surface left to cling to. Though his feet clung to the base of a pew, his body was nevertheless dragged without ceremony towards the pyre. He ended with his head nearer the stage than his feet. Meanwhile, the demon continued to pitch his offer to Fenris.

INEVITABLE. YOUR BRANDS RESIST PHYSICAL HARM. LIKE ALL FADEBORN, I RESIST MAGIC. ANDERS WILL HEAL WHAT LITTLE DAMAGE GETS THROUGH. TOGETHER, WE WILL BE TRULY INVINCIBLE. JOIN US.

Again, when Justice extended the offer to join, Fenris felt a pulse in the air. It grew stronger this time, setting him physically off balance. Fenris' feet gave way. Instead of scrabbling at the floor with his gauntlets, his hands went to his head. A terrible pressure bloomed in his skull. He suppressed the pain barely in time. His body found momentary purchase by curling inwards against the lip of the stage.

"Invincible? What for?" The elf's brow wrinkled in thought. "Have you not done enough damage?" Fenris struggled to remove his armor, releasing buckles to the breastplate hidden at his sides. The demon looked on, amused. Once free, the breastplate clanged against the pyre with a shower of sparks.

THIS WORLD IS UNCLEAN. WE MUST CLEANSE IT THROUGH FIRE AND BLOOD.

"Like you cleansed Kirkwall for the mages?" Fenris attempted to remove his gauntlets. Though normally dexterous, his motions were rendered awkward by the strength of the magnetic pull. He refused to give up on releasing a hand from its cage. In any case, he found the pull at his brands was almost as strong.

IT WAS NECESSARY, YET INSUFFICIENT. ANDERS SEES ONLY THE SUFFERING OF MAGES, TO WHICH YOU ARE BLIND. YOU SEE THE SUFFERING OF ELVES AND OF SLAVES. YOU ARE BOTH CORRECT.

Fenris let out a howl of frustration. Having raised his hands unthinkingly above the stage's threshold while attempting to remove his gauntlets, they were caught in a stronger magnetic field. Fenris was pulled hands first onto the stage and against the pyre. He slid in carefully to avoid the sharpest of the debris. He ended in a fetal position, his back to the pyre, pushing debris around the pole to make room.

TOGETHER, WE WILL AVENGE THE WORLD ON BEHALF OF ALL THOSE WHO SUFFER.

"No," Fenris again refused. Justice sent another lighting strike to the chain in response, causing Fenris to grit his teeth and curse in Arcanum. Though restrained to the pyre by the magnetic pull, he pushed himself up its length to stand. "I have no need for justice, demon. I killed Danarius with my own hands."

YET HE IS BUT ONE MAGISTER. HUNDREDS MORE REMAIN, AMONG WHICH HE WAS NOTHING. YOU SUFFERED BECAUSE HE WAS WEAK. HE FEARED DEATH AT THE HANDS OF A STRONGER MAGE.

As if to prove his point, Justice unleashed a terrific lighting spell, a tempest cloud covering the room. The combined might struck the pyre liberally due to its vertical advantage over the room's other furnishings.

Fenris gritted his teeth, refusing to react to the pain. A strangled groan escaped despite his best efforts. As the lightning slowed, he was able to speak again. "He crafted the weapon of his own demise. Me." Fenris' brands lit. He reached around with his added strength but could not wrench the sword free.

YET YOU REMAIN A PRIZE FOR ANY STRONG MAGISTER WHO WOULD CLAIM YOU. YOU HAVE SEEN FOR YOURSELF THE DAMAGE THEY WREAK. CAN YOU NOT GUESS THE FATE IN STORE FOR YOU?

"So I should deal with a demon like any magister?" Fenris countered. "No! I left Tevinter for a reason."

Justice strode forward, stepping onto the stage to approach his prey. Fenris growled, attempting to peel himself from the pyre to attack the spirit in earnest. The best he could do even with his brands lit was stretch his body forward, lifting his body free from the pole. The gauntlets remained attached to the pyre and his hands. Fenris strained forward, and the demon responded by leaning forward itself.

YOU RAN LIKE A COWARD. HAVE YOU NO FURY WITH WHICH TO FIGHT THE IMPERIUM?

"I have anger enough, but I am not so foolish as to try," Fenris replied dourly. Justice craned his head closer, his whole body in a bestial position. He stopped a few inches from Fenris, taunting the elf for his inability to breach the gap. For good measure, Justice threw another spare bolt to the chain above. The added electricity enforced the magnet's pull, forcing Fenris back against the pyre, trapped like Andraste.

A blanket covering one of the stained glass windows fell aside due to the staggered vibrations. As the blinding light from the lightning bolt faded, jewel tones in red and blue covered the stage, creating a distorted rendering along the floor of Andraste's sacrifice. The art shifted into tilted abstraction as the tempest cloud turned to mist and the blanket fell away. Tinted lights curled over Fenris' drooping body.

ANDERS SAID MUCH THE SAME. YET IN TIME, HE SAW MY POINT. HE CHOSE TO JOIN WITH ME.

It came again, that unrelenting change in pressure as if the air left the room. Fenris felt as if the pressure centered itself in his head, fogging his thoughts. Was this what Anders felt when Justice sought to join with him? "Then Anders was a fool," Fenris broke hoarsely. "You led him to his doom, as you would me."

YOU WOULD HAVE NO FEAR OF MAGISTERS IF YOU SAW YOURSELF AS ANDERS SEES YOU.

"Ugh," Fenris groused. "Spare me the details." He made a face as if to avoid an unpleasant smell.

NO. I WILL SHOW YOU.

Lightning coursed from above, forking tendrils striking Fenris' brands, forcing his muscles to shudder. The room shook as thunder thudded in echo. A lightning bolt leapt from Fenris' chin to Justice's outstretched hand, the demon sighing with exultation at the heady power coursing into him. His face's pleasure was mirrored by Fenris' excruciating pain from being struck. The elf's scream rang for miles.

YOU WILL JOIN US. WE WILL MAKE YOU SEE.

On the road to Starkhaven, Sebastian heard a terrifying yell, Fenris' hoarse deep roar immediately recognizable to the unhurried prince. His eyes opened wide in honest concern for his friend. Hearing the roll of thunder, he looked up to find a clear blue sky. He could guess what that meant. "Fenris. You were right. Maker forgive me," he whispered. He turned his white steed around and urged it to a gallop.

While speeding along, Sebastian mentally prepared himself for a hundred different confrontations. With Anders. With Justice. Anders with mages alongside him. Justice with innocent hostages. Either one holding Fenris hostage. He questioned whether he should have told Fenris about his search of the Kirkwall Chantry's ashes before he left town, of the precious artifact he reclaimed there. In the end, he deferred to his earlier judgment. Fenris knew of the mage collar, the only tactically important item in his possession. Sebastian imagined tossing it to Fenris. But would the elf collar the mage, or kill him?

Even the swiftest steed was powerless to bring forth the immaculate confrontation Sebastian hoped for.