"Tamlen was one of your tribe; a blood-brother. You left him in the ruins, left him to his fate. Tell me pilgrim, did you fail Tamlen?"

"Yes..." The Warden choked. "I could have tried harder to stop him... Could have pulled him away from the mirror." She was crying now or maybe she had begun the moment the spirits spoke that name. Fat droplets fell from her now bloodshot eyes she did not bother to conceal; there would have been no point. Zevran was angered by the spirit's inane questioning. How dare he dig at old wounds that had not had the chance to heal. She'd been so careful to put it behind her, working through it in her own time, even if they never spoke of what she was trying to hide; he had known it had hurt her a great deal. And this spirit had undone any healing all in an instant.

The spirit questioned each of them in turn, Zevran balked when its gaze finally fell on him. "Is it my turn? Hurrah. I'm so excited." And spirit even managed to shake him, picking at a scab that was not ready to come off. He fumbled with his answer feeling pinned in a corner, saw her gaze fall upon him and she wiped the last tears from her eyes. He was still not ready to tell that story.

The riddles came easy to her, faring far better with the challenge of words then the challenge of pasts. But the Gantlet would not let things go so easy and just when she was able to speak without a catch in her throat it laid her low once again.

"It's so cold here, sister. I can feel the chill in my bones." His voice was hollow and echoed ethereally against the stone.

"Tamlen is it really you?" She reached out a hand to the disembodied ghost. He obliged by reaching out his own hand her fingers passing through his palm like air. Zevran knew then for sure that this clansman of hers was not just a friend, and just why it was so hard for her to speak of him.

"You think 'This cannot be Tamlen, Tamlen is gone. He is only footsteps in the dust.' I am Tamlen and I am not. I am part of the gauntlet and part of you." He raised his hand up and she held hers as if it was resting against his palm. Their finger's laced together, and she tried hard not to begin crying once more.

"I wish I could have told Tamlen that I tried to find him." She whispered.

"Some things lost can never be found. Some mistakes never unmade. Those that survive must go on living. You have suffered enough thinking you could have done something. It is time to leave that behind." Tamlen's ghost began to fade but not before he gave her one last gift.

"I will try." She replied accepting the pendant he gave her.

All he knew of this strange clansman of the Warden had been given to him in the last hour or so, but he'd wished she had been able to tell him herself, and not had forcibly shoved in the light. It wasn't until after they fought duplicates of themselves and then reached a room with a puzzle in the walkway that he was able to speak with Alistair. "Did you know about this Tamlen?"

"Sort of, but all I know is what Duncan had told me. They were both infected with the blight during a hunt, and he was only able to find her. He had convinced her to give up the search in order to save her own life. After, she never really wanted to talk about it and then... "He sighed shaking his head. Zevran was not the only one worried about their companion it seemed. "Truth is I never asked and I should have. I haven't been a friend to her."


Alistair always struck me as a bit selfish, forcing all the choices on the Warden.