AN: Okay, so, like... fair warning here, this chapter is definitely the worst so far, and by that I mean sadness, violence, gore, rape mention, mind fuckery, tons of just really nasty awful stuff. Definitely M-rated, here. If you've got a problem with any of that, if it triggers you, then perhaps this chapter isn't one you ought to read. If you are able to make it through, however, I think you'll find this one to be one of the better written chapters, and certainly the longest. Enjoy!

'How convenient,' Agronaak thought bitterly, 'that the Templars decided to build their fortress and entire country away from us.'

They'd been riding for weeks, nearing a month now, and everyone's tempers were flaring a little high. Blackwall strayed far behind the rest of the group, Solas was slumped over his horse, sleeping, his spirit wandering the Fade, an annoyed look on his face, and even Varric's constant grin seemed a little strained in recent days. Agronaak couldn't even begin to imagine the ride back if the Templars of Therinfal didn't accept the Inquisition's proposal of an alliance. Blackwall might just snap and go on a murdering spree.

Luckily for them, the long awkward silences occasionally broken by a witty remark from Varric would soon be over. Therinfal Redoubt loomed in the distance, an impressive fortress with a sizable array of defenses, or so he'd been told. Even from a ways off, Agronaak could see a good amount of Templars patrolling the walls of the fortress; they obviously didn't want this place getting captured. A few nobles had gathered around the gate, eager to catch a glimpse of the Inquisition's "pet Qunari" as some referred to Agronaak. Solas woke up as they approached, scowling at everything that existed.

"Lighten up, Chuckles." Varric chided. "I thought someone like you might be at home in Therinfal." Solas muttered something in old Elvish that roughly translated to 'fuck off'.

"Whoa, hey now," Varric said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Touchy, touchy. I don't know what you said, but it looks like someone got woken up too early from his nap." Solas looked like he might very well set Varric on fire if Varric kept the antics up, and Agronaak coughed loudly to alert him. There were few words spoken up until they reached the front gate, and then most of them originated from the nobles - "He's so tall!" "What an exotic hairstyle!" "Those are horns, Lady Elise." "Do you think he brought the dwarf as a snack?" Agronaak pointedly ignored them all, taking a swig of Carnal from his flask. He really should stop drinking so much of this stuff. Then again, Zarihn drank recklessly and was only somewhat dead inside, so it can't be that bad.

The Templars at the gate recognized Agronaak instantly - being the only Qunari in a few hundred miles had some small benefits - and rushed to open the gate for him.

"The esteemed Herald of Andraste graces us with his presence." Lord Seeker Lucius called out from the battlements, taking on a mocking tone. "Don't your devotions to your heathen philosophy call you elsewhere?"

Agronaak snorted in disdain. "Is this how you greet all your visitors, Lord Seeker?" he called back. "You must make a wonderful first impression."

Lucius' face twisted into a cruel sneer. "It speaks! It is capable of coherent sentences and thought! Who has ever heard of such a thing?"

"Most of the people here, you ignorant fop!" Blackwall yelled, quick to the defense of his friend. "Apparently your brain just can't comprehend it." Lucius shut up at that one. Agronaak and Varric glanced at each other and shared a smirk as they rode through the open gate.

"Apparently the tales of Grey Warden savagery are true." A voice said from the crowd. Agronaak turned his head, curious, and laid eyes upon a tall man, perhaps in his late forties but still fit, with long, slightly unruly brown hair and in dire need of a shave. He grinned and walked over to Agronaak, extending his right hand out to him. "I am Fergus Cousland, Teyrn of Highever. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Agronaak paused for a moment before grasping Fergus' hand and hopping down from his horse, which was led away by a stableboy. "Likewise, Teyrn Cousland," he said, nodding respectfully. A thought occurred to him; where had he heard the name before?

Fergus seemed to know what Agronaak was thinking before he could say anything. "You're wondering where you've heard the name before?"

"I am. I take it by your tone that that is a common reaction?" Agronaak asked rhetorically. Fergus laughed dryly.

"Few people know my name because it is mine." Fergus told him. "They know who I am because of my brother James, who you might know as the Hero of Ferelden." He gave a crooked sort of grin. "I was off scouting when the darkspawn horde destroyed our army at Ostagar. Good thing, too; we were sent back years later to do what we could for the bodies - eerily well-preserved. Must have been a bloodbath… Well, anyway, James was in the battle, and luckily for all of us wasn't among the fallen. The rest, well… I'm sure you know it."

"United the different races, yes yes, I've heard it." Agronaak said. "He fell in battle against the Archdemon, I've heard."

"I always thought he'd outlive us all." Fergus mused. "Tough as a dragon's hide, he was." His face took on a distinctly mournful look for a moment. He quickly shook himself out of his reverie, however, and gave Agronaak a large grin. "Well, that's enough about James, yes? I simply wanted to let you know that you, Herald Qun'Maloc, have my support. I… know many people are unsupportive of such a new and 'upstart' organization, if you will, especially one led by members of two races many consider… undesirable. I, however, am not so prejudiced, and you can rest assured my resources are yours."

"If you are quite through with that relic of Ostagar, we should continue on, Herald." Lucius called back.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll much prefer your company, you Chant-thumping imbecile!" Fergus snapped.

"Oh, is that what I am, you… Er, you…" Lucius fumbled for a moment but, suddenly unable to come up with anything at the moment, simply scowled and motioned sharply for Agronaak and company to move on.

A few minutes later, they all stepped into a large courtyard, where a dark-skinned Templar with very short hair was there to greet them. "Herald Qun'Maloc," he said, bowing slightly. "I am Knight-Templar Barris. I hope the journey here has not been unpleasant for you." Varric coughed loudly but Solas smacked the back of his head with his staff and he shut up.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Knight-Templar Barris," Agronaak said with a similar bow. "We are well enough, albeit with some frayed nerves" - he glanced briefly at Varric, who winked at him - "and if it is not much trouble, we would like to conduct our business here quickly, so we may get some adequate rest before returning to Haven."

"Of course, Lord Herald." Barris said, taking a step forward and gesturing to a set of three flags on the wall of the fortress. "My lord, if you could spend a minute here, it could prove to be interesting. Each of these flags represents something important, or at least something that should be important to our guests here at Therinfal. The flags represent the Maker, the people, and the Chantry. Raise or lower the flags based on how important each is to you. It may yet show the nobles something they do not yet know."

'Fuck,' Agronaak caught himself thinking as he strode up to the cranks used to raise or lower the flags. The Maker, the Chantry, and the people… He knew full well that what he'd like to do was rip the flags of the Maker and the Chantry right off the wall and burn them; those two things were so southern, so removed from anything he considered to be important with respect to the Qun - not that he was too strict a follower of that anymore - but alas, he was one Qunari amongst a sea of pious humans (and one somewhat faithful dwarf), and he had to make some choice.

The people were obviously his priority; what was the point of the Inquisition if not to bring order and keep all Thedosians safe? But whether or not to "devote" himself more to the Maker or the Chantry was enough to make him pause and wonder. Eventually he reasoned that the Chantry was supposed to make life better for the common folk as well, and that was more in line with his one real priority. He suspected that even if he were a human, and raised in an Andrastian household, he would never have been very devoted anyway; he knew he was never much for the Qun. And so it went: the people, the Chantry, the Maker.

"How very surprising!" The Lord Seeker exclaimed, the sarcasm painfully obvious in his voice. "A Qunari disrespecting our beliefs? Putting them behind all else? Were he a human, I would be surprised."

Agronaak rounded on Lucius, annoyed. "I agreed to join the Inquisition to help people, Lord Seeker, to make the world a better place, not to appease some overzealous ignoramus cowering in his fortress, refusing to assist in the conflict or accept that not every culture in Thedas is going to perfectly mirror his own. I stand by my decision."

"That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard." Varric muttered, wiping a tear from his eye. Solas rolled his eyes at Varric but was smiling slightly. Blackwall was being Blackwall. The Lord Seeker turned away from Agronaak and walked into the keep, leaving the iron bound door ajar.

"I apologize for the Lord Seeker's behavior, Lord Herald Agronaak." Barris said hurriedly. "But if we could move along…"

There was definitely something amiss in the keep; Agronaak didn't see anything immediately wrong, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was not as it should be. He supposed it was curious that all the Templars they passed while moving through the keep had their helmets on, while Barris and Lucius and a few other Templars they'd seen in the courtyard had their helmets off. What was the point, he wondered, when they were securely in their own keep and there was no imminent danger? It was slightly unnerving; he couldn't make out their eyes through the visors of their helmets but felt dozens of eyes on him as soon as he passed through the keep doors. He shivered. It was probably nothing; Barris and Lucius were obviously fine… but he chose to remain alert in here.

Lucius broke off in a different direction, still fuming, while Barris led the party off to the western barracks. "Knight-Captain Denam," he explained, "will assist you in the next step in your visit here."

As soon as the last of them had walked into the main room of the barracks, two Templars moved to block either exit. Agronaak immediately tensed and had to fight the urge to draw his weapon right then and there. He locked eyes with Blackwall, then Varric, and finally Solas, and each of them shared a nod. He was glad he brought such a perceptive party along.

Knight-Captain Denam was staring at a painting on the wall when they entered, and when he turned around Agronaak knew beyond all doubt that this was a trap. It wasn't the long, disheveled hair, or the bags under his eyes, or the burn marks scarring his face; it was the look in his eyes that tipped him off. This man had the look of someone who had not slept in days, and that was due entirely to the kind of unswerving loyalty that made him incredibly dangerous.

"He's either drunk, sleep-deprived, or possessed." Varric muttered. "Possibly all three."

"Lord Herald Qun'Maloc." The Knight-Captain intoned, a strange sort of glint coming into his eye. "Pleased to have you here."

Agronaak tensed. The more he looked at this man the worse their situation seemed to get. "I am honored to be here," he said, forcing himself to remain calm.

"No you are not." Denam said simply. "But we have been expecting you nonetheless." A crooked smile found its way onto his face. "The Lord Seeker…" He giggled madly. "He sent me to die for you."

'Of fucking course he did,' Agronaak thought bitterly, but feigned surprise. "I'm… sorry?"

Denam's smile grew wider. "Lord Seeker Lucius had plans for the Order, Herald. Glorious plans, most glorious. But you, Herald, you botched it, you and your sudden arrival, it raised too many questions among the Templars; the plan's all but ruined now… No matter," he said, grin growing ever wider. "Something may be salvaged as of yet. The rest of the Order shall be purged, as shall you and your noble allies, Herald." He drew his sword. "No one shall leave Therinfal who is not stained red!" All around the room, the rest of the Templars drew their weapons as well.

Blackwall sighed tiredly and hefted his axe. "Why are all the Templars such fucking morons?" He asked tiredly.

"Maybe the darkspawn blood makes them dumber." Varric suggested.

"Unlikely. It is more probable that it heightens their intelligence." Solas mused.

"Way to kill the mood, Egg."

"Egg?!" Solas asked, incredulous.

"You're an egg."

"Solas, you're an egg," Agronaak grumbled, ignoring Solas' cry of indignation and drawing his sword and shield just quickly enough to defend himself from Denam. The man fought with an almost reckless passion, but there was a surprising amount of oomph behind his swings that Agronaak had not expected from someone two feet shorter than him. His oomph and passion were no match for Agronaak's brute strength however, and the head of the crazed Knight-Captain soon fell to the floor. Varric laughed to himself as a high-velocity ballistic bolt pinned a Templar to the wall before detonating, Blackwall sighed again like the moody prat he was, and Solas methodically sent his opponents to the floor, wailing and clutching their heads in agony. The method was certainly effective, but the sound made Agronaak a bit sick and he put them out of their misery.

Moody Beardman, Horns, Chest Hair, and Egg then proceeded to fight their way through an entire battalion of Templars as they made their way through Therinfal, each one of the Templars showing increasingly horrendous stages of red lyrium corruption.

"Maker's balls, Bartrand…" Varric muttered to himself. "You just couldn't leave well enough alone…"

"What was that?" Solas asked, mentally blasting a squadron of Templars over the battlements.

"Nothing, Chuckles."

"Lord Herald!" a voice called from the side. Agronaak turned to find Barris running over to him. Everyone tensed, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the man; he looked a bit horrified, in fact. "I am so terribly sorry, Lord Herald! I swear to you I did not know what events were unfolding here; I've not been here too terribly long. I wish to stand by your side as you fight against these monstrosities." Barris gave a crisp salute. Agronaak merely snorted and waved for him to follow them.

There were a fucking lot of Templars in Therinfal. Like, the entire Maker-damned Order was there. Fucking literally. And only a minimal amount remained uncorrupted. As the group of motley heroes progressed towards the keep, an increasing number of hulking, bloated monsters with red lyrium jutting from their backs in spikes appeared, shrieking hellishly.

"They put Geldauran to shame." Solas remarked before turning one of the behemoths into an ice sculpture.

"Who's that, Chuckles?" Varric asked.

"Terror incarnate." Solas replied calmly. Blackwall cleaved a Templar from hip to shoulder with his axe.

"Sounds like an interesting bloke." He said dryly.

Eventually, after much more fighting and a few more saved Templars, the group reached the bottom of a rather impressive set of stairs. The sky, sunny enough when they had arrived at Therinfal, had since clouded over and a light drizzle had begun. It was one of those drizzles that wasn't hard enough to cause any lasting wetness, and mostly served to irritate Agronaak. He was rather fond of his hair.

The stairs really were quite large; so large, in fact, that Agronaak couldn't quite make out what was happening at the top of them. However, there was a sinister sort of humming, a vibration that permeated his being; he knew that feeling from somewhere else but he couldn't quite place it. All he knew was this: whatever the source of all this trouble was, it was located at the top of the stairs. At the top of the stairs stood Lord Seeker Lucius, surrounded by another battalion of the Red Templars, some of which appeared to be hissing.

"Lord Herald!" Lucius barked at him. "Your efforts are futile. My Templars shall purge this world of mages and establish a new order!"

"Somebody's been drinking…" Varric said in a singsong.

"We're about to be attacked by a fanatical cult, and that's all you can think?" Blackwall asked. "Maker, are you ever annoying…"

"Blackwall, what the fuck," Agronaak spat, "are you so upset about? Honestly, man, your temperament reminds me of a spoiled child. What is Varric's fun to you?" He turned back to the Lord Seeker, who looked rather miffed at being briefly ignored/ "What was that, Lucius, about purging the world of mages? I find it rather hard to believe you shall be purging the world of anything when so many of your men have been killed by the five of us."

"Insolent mortal!" Lucius snapped, his voice going shrill. "You will learn to respect your betters!" As if on cue, actually, it was on cue, Agronaak felt that he was suddenly losing consciousness before he and his companions crumpled to the stone steps, their minds drifting to the Fade.

Agronaak's eyes snapped open and he sat up suddenly, turning his head sharply from side to side. He was… somewhere. It took him a moment to realize that it was a cell not unlike the one he'd woken up in in Haven all those months ago. Although it was… off. Everything that wasn't right next to him was shrouded in black wisps of smoke, and faint whispers echoed in the shadows.

"Herald, did I hear you properly?" Josephine's voice asked as she stepped into Agronaak's view along with what appeared to be… him. The other him looked the same, although he was completely covered by the black smoke, his eyes burning through like hot coals.

"Of course you did. Execute them all." His voice said as he passed the cells.

"Lord Herald Zarihn was just confused, I'm sure-" Josephine started to say.

"He was not confused!" His voice howled at her. "He was plotting to betray me. Or perhaps you are as well. Would you like to join Commander Rutherford in the crow cages, Ambassador?"

"N-no, my Lord Herald!" Josephine told him, terrified.

"Or perhaps I should turn you over to the soldiers like our former Spymaster." Agronaak mused. "They had such fun with her, as I recall…" Josephine shook her head fervently.

"I… I will assist you however I can." She told him. He let out a low, rumbling laugh and rested his hand on her shoulder as she fought the urge to shrink away.

"Relax, Ambassador." He said, patting her on the back. "There is much to be done, and we don't want to end up like Seeker Pentaghast."

"No, my Lord Herald. Anything but that."

"Hey!" A voice that was unmistakably Zarihn's echoed from one of the cells, although it was hoarse and he sounded as if he'd been crying. "Hey, you, you twisted-horned, heartless bastard! I'm talking to you, shitbird!"

The false Agronaak slowly turned his head towards the source of the sound, a twisted smile coming onto his face. He slowly walked out of sight and Agronaak scrambled to his feet, not wanting to miss a second. He hadn't entirely figured out what had brought him to this place and knew that finding his way out should be his top priority, but he was overtaken by a morbid curiosity - he had to see how this ended.

Zarihn, or at least a recreation of him, was standing in a cell next to Agronaak's, gazing at the thing with intense hatred. He didn't seem to have been in there for too long yet, but there was a slight sunkenness to his cheeks that wasn't normally there, and his eyes were puffy - definitely crying, then.

"Listen here, you moronic shit-for-brains excuse of a Herald!" Zarihn snapped at him, still as fearless and tenacious as ever. "When I get out of here, I'm going to rip off your head and shit down your neck! You will pay for what you did to her, you bitch-born monster!"

The other Agronaak merely laughed, leaning in close, his eyes glowing brighter. "Oh, is that so? You're going to escape and kill me, is that it?" He began to laugh, first a small chuckle, quickly building into a booming guffaw that echoed throughout the chamber. The laughter suddenly cut off as his hand shot forward and grabbed Zarihn by the shirt collar, smashing his head against the bars of the cage. "I'm so afraid…" Zarihn spat in his face and sneered.

"Better men than you have tried to kill, or to break me. They're all dead, or being fucked over by a wild bereskarn." He snarled at him.

The false Agronaak chuckled again. "I'm sorry, my dear friend, but I just don't… see that happening." In a flash, Agronaak had unsheathed a knife from his belt and plunged it into Zarihn's eye, wrenching a scream from the elf. The apparition slowly removed the knife, twisting it as he went, and slowly licked the blood off the blade. He released Zarihn's shirt and let him crumple to the floor.

Agronaak watched with rapt horror as this all unfolded, almost unable to comprehend what had just occurred. Josephine was on the verge of sobbing. The scene suddenly vanished, dissolving into black mist.

"I'm sorry about your friend." A quiet voice said from the corner of his cell. "He seemed nice before they brought him down here. But… that was too much. Like he was all plaster and pins inside. Broken, like an old vase."

Agronaak whirled around and found… well, he wasn't sure. A young human male, perhaps twenty years old, with kindly features mostly hidden under an inconveniently large wide-brimmed hat. He was very thin and spindly, dressed in simple clothing, like a commoner. He didn't seem to have any weapons, though, and if he were actually a threat Agronaak supposed that the time to attack would have been while his back had been turned. "And… who might you be?" he inquired.

"My name is Cole." The boy told him. "Or, it was. Maybe it still is. I'm not entirely sure. But I want to help. I know where your friend is. And when. And where you are."

"I'm… sorry?" The human, Cole, spoke rather oddly, unlike anyone he'd ever met before. "You know where my friend is? Do you mean Zarihn? What is all this? Where am I, if you know?"

"Your friend is in Haven. Both in the Fade and in Thedas. You're there now. In the Fade. Envy made it, and he rules it." Cole replied. "You're here until you can find a way out. And I can help."
"Well… alright," Agronaak said hesitantly. "I suppose I've not got any better bet finding my way out, hmm?"

"No."

Agronaak was a little surprised at the bluntness of the answer, but, well, he supposed it was true. "Er… show me the way then." Cole grabbed him by the arm and nodded slightly, the black smoke around them growing rapidly for a few seconds before it disappeared, leaving the two of them in Haven's courtyard, now turned into a fortress.

A gallows and an executioner's block had been set up in front of what used to be the tavern and Inquisition soldiers surrounded it, all stern and unsmiling. Black stone towers dotted the walls and a corpse decorated each one. From left to right, it was Dorian, the Iron Bull, Krem, Blackwall, Solas, Vivienne, Cullen, and Varric impaled by a spike in his head. A large cross was dug into the ground in front of the gates, upon which lay the dessicated remains of Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast, seventy-eighth in line for the Nevarran throne, as was carved into her stomach. Leliana was standing off of the execution platform, wrapped in a bear pelt and nothing else, shivering and looking scared out of her wits, any traces of the stoic Spymaster gone from her mind. Sera was standing on the execution platform, scowling defiantly as she was shoved down onto the block by Agronaak as he hefted his sword.

"Kiss my arse, you cock-gobbling bitch." She spat at him, furious as ever.

"Oh, but don't you remember? I've already done that. And much more. You whore."

"Ugh, just get on with it, before being around you too long kills me outright." Sera spat at him. A small metallic clink came from the other end of the stage.

"I'm afraid it won't come to that." Zarihn said as his manacles clattered to the platform. He let out a primal howl and ran at the false Agronaak, catching him off guard and shoving him onto his back, pulling knife free from his belt and bringing it up into the air, pausing for a second as realization dawned on him. But his stunned state of mind didn't last long as he drove the knife into the phantom's chest repeatedly, about to bring it down for the ninth stroke when a crossbow bolt pierced his chest. His breath caught in his throat and he dropped the knife back on the platform before tumbling off of it. Sera dove for the knife as if her life depended on it, because it did, and drove it into her own chest, laughing maniacally. Zarihn slowly crawled across the snow, leaving a trail of blood and wood splinters behind him as none of the guards dared to fire again. The false Agronaak stood up and scowled, storming off of the stage and driving his boot into Zarihn's back, over the crossbow wound and snarling.

"I'm sorry." Zarihn said, looking up at the cross with his remaining eye. "I'm so-" He was cut off when Agronaak's sword rammed through the back of his throat, silencing him.

"Your friend lived a bad life." Cole said softly. "But you did too. Neither of you let it show. You're like boxes. He made his box seem pretty and interesting, covered in gold and shiny. It made people want to know what was inside, but not enough. You… you're like a crate. Plain, wooden, unremarkable. You made yourself that way. So no one would ask. So that you could stay locked in a cupboard and forgotten. So no one would ask you, and you wouldn't ask yourself what happened to the sister with her long black hair."

Agronaak snapped his head to the side. "My… how do you know about that?"

"You're like a box. But I can open the box. It's easy for me. Sorry." Cole said this all so simply, so matter-of-factly, that it chilled Agronaak somewhat. He hadn't thought about her in years, mostly because there wasn't much to think about. He'd been very young, but he did remember that she was older than him by something like a decade and was very pretty and had this wonderful hair…. He used to love playing with it.

Agronaak shook himself out of his reverie. "I think we should continue on, Cole. Right now. No talking about her… please."

"If you want to know her, after this, I can tell you." Cole replied, grabbing his arm again. "But there is yet more to see."

The black smoke rose again, and Agronaak and Cole appeared in an area that Agronaak knew all too well. It was the Arishok's sanctum on Par Vollen, where he had once received his orders. Screams and war cries could be heard outside, and a battering ram was being slammed into the steel-bound door of the Sanctum.

"Arishok. We must flee. The fortress has fallen." One of the many guards surrounding the Arishok said.

"No." The Arishok intoned, bunching his fist in his white cornrow hair, devoid of horns. "I will not leave my land to this Inquisition. I learned something a long time ago than you should learn today, soldier." He slid on his helmet and lifted up a white steel greatsword from where it leaned against the wall. "I learned what it meant to be truly courageous. And I learned it from one better than myself. A bas, no less."

"Arishok-"

"Come Asala." The Arishok said to his sword as the door splintered. "For our friend who brought us together again." The door broke down and Agronaak stormed into the room surrounded by Inquisition soldiers. "Nehraa kadan! Ataash Qunari! Anaan esaam Qun! Nehraa Qun!"

The scene dissolved again, but after a few seconds, nothing new arose from the mist. Agronaak looked at Cole but was shocked to find that he was no longer next to him. Something was deeply wrong.

A growl of rage echoed around him, followed by a loud, hoarse voice: "The pest is removed. He cannot reach you for now."

"And who might you be?" Agronaak called out to the void. "Envy, is it?"

A hiss was all he got in response. "Envy, yes, Envy, envious, need more, more, MORE. I took the Templar first. He was strong. He could fight. He could control some forces. But that's not enough, boring, boring, boring, why stop there when I could have more?" There was more hissing. "So I brought you here. Here I have the power. But this… this… Fade, you call it, insubstantial. I can't do much outside of it. But you… you are in the real world, you have power there, power Lucius could not hope to have. He had envy too. Of you.

"So you're here, and now you cannot move in the real world. I will take you over. Lucius will be dead. And so will you. But your body? No. Mine. It will be mine. The world? Oysters."

"... Oysters?"

There was a pause. "No, wait, my oyster? Stupid mortal expressions."

Agronaak was thinking hard, straining to come up with an explanation for everything he'd seen. This was Envy's corner of the Fade, and he wanted Agronaak's body, so…

"Those visions I saw… those are things that will happen if you take over my body?"

He was met with a faint cackling. "If, he says. If. What 'if?' How will you be leaving? You're stuck. Cole, stupid name, he is dealt with, there is no one here but you and-"

"Me." Cole cut him off, appearing suddenly in a flash of light as the smoke scattered back into wisps around the corners of the room. "Run. And don't open the doors."

Agronaak decided it was probably best to listen to Cole, whatever he was, and took off down the only way he saw: a long corridor with a faint white light at the end of it, lined with what looked to be a couple dozen doors in total lining it. As Agronaak sprinted full-tilt past the doors, he felt oddly drawn to them all, as if opening them would be a wonderful course of action. He could hear laughter in one, the creaking of a bed frame behind another one, and… rushing water, bubbles?

"Vast nakaal Arishok. Ost Qun dast thuriim." A voice echoed from inside one of the doors, calling him to take his place as Arishok, and lead his people. He managed to make his way past that one, just barely, and stopped at the next one, his blood running cold.

"Get back here!" A melodious voice called, giggling. "Mother's done making dinner!"

"Grrrr!" A tiny, prepubescent voice growled. "I am a mighty warrior! None may command me, or they shall face my horns!"

"Oh, get back here, you." The female voice said. There was a slight commotion and then laughter spilled out from behind the door.

"St-st-stop!" The small voice called out, gasping for breath. "I am -haha- a-a warrior! Release me! Fight me like a man!"

"But women don't fight, remember?" The female voice said. "Besides, I think this is more effective anyway.." A fit of giggles erupted from both parties

Agronaak was so entranced by the sound that he almost didn't catch himself with his hand on the doorknob. It also helped that at that precise moment an unearthly howl echoed from somewhere far off, followed by the sounds of some sort of conflict. Agronaak was thankful for Cole's handiwork and sprinted off down the rest of the corridor. The light was getting brighter, brighter, the Envy demon was screaming, a single tear trailed down Agronaak's cheek…

The next thing he knew, he felt far more… solid than he had before, something he hadn't noticed until now, and was lying on his back yet again, in a far different place than he'd been before - he seemed to be off in a side room in the Therinfal keep. Shaking his head and sitting up, he thought he could hear the ever so slight sounds of people bustling around a little ways away. He struggled to his feet, still groggy, and made his way out of the room. It was lucky that his weapons and armor had not been removed; it seemed that Lucius, or rather the thing pretending to be Lucius, had not expected him to wake up.

Aside from the one noise, Therinfal was eerily quiet. All the Templar guards he had seen were now nowhere to be seen at all. The torches flickered ominously, and yet Agronaak felt strangely chilled.

The commotion was coming from a set of large double doors, finely engraved, at the end of a corridor that was wider than most. Agronaak figured that this was the main hall of the keep. Easing the heavy wooden doors open as quietly as he could, Agronaak was relieved to find several dozen Templars with no traces of red lyrium taint. Upon further examination, he even saw Solas in the corner polishing the gem at the top of his staff. "Solas!" he called, prompting everyone in the area to jump into a combat stance and draw their weapons before they realized it was only him.

"Try not to give us all heart attacks." Varric teased, looking up from Bianca. Blackwall grunted before turning around and starting to shore up the wooden barricades by the other doors.

"Yes, Lord Herald?" Solas asked, looking up from his staff. "Something you need?"

"I'm… sorry?" Agronaak intoned, incredulous. "Why are you all so calm? What happened? Did Envy not send you to the Fade as well? What has happened that we are now under siege?"

"Calm down, Rivaini," Varric said. "Chuckles here busted us out."

"Indeed I did," Solas said, nodding. "The demon was not aware that I had spent so much of my time in the Fade, and I was easily able to figure out a way to circumvent its magic. From there, 'busting the rest out,' as Varric puts it, was a relatively simple matter. You, on the other hand, were another case entirely; the magic it placed on you was many magnitudes stronger than that which had been placed on the rest of us."

"Gave us quite a scare, you did," Blackwall called from the barricades. "Tossing and turning, like you was having a ruddy nightmare."

"So you placed me in a random side room?" Agronaak inquired.

"Yes, well, I suppose we did. Sorry about that. Didn't have anywhere we could set you down while we worked on the defenses."

Agronaak was still not satisfied. "May I ask why you, Solas, the apparent Fade magic adept, did not do more to help me wake up? Surely you did not just try for a few minutes and then give up, stuffing me away in the equivalent of a, of a broom closet?"

"Agronaak…" Varric said, "You were asleep for ten hours. Solas spent five of those trying everything he could think of to bring you around. At some point he had to stop spending time on that and come help with defending the hall. You're tough, and we hoped that you might… power through."

Agronaak gazed at Varric in shock. "Ten hours? Ten?" He couldn't believe it. "It only felt like minutes, fifteen at the most…"

"Well that's how most dreams work, Rivaini," Varric said, his tone faintly condescending. "Now come on, Barris wanted to talk to you as soon as you woke up."

"Lord Herald!" Barris said, sprinting over to Agronaak. "Thank the Maker you awoke! We need your help, and quickly!"

'Well of course they do,' Agronaak thought bitterly, but quickly shoved the resentful thoughts out of his head. He'd never had those kinds of thoughts before, but now was not the time for introspection. "What's the situation, Barris?"

Barris stopped them near one of the barricades. "As you can see, we… well, we're under siege. It's been going on since an hour or two after you and your friends fell unconscious. The amount of these corrupted Templars - 'Red Templars,' we've taken to calling them for shortness' sake, or just 'Reds' - stationed in the Redoubt is astonishing, far more than the number of uncorrupted ones. We started off holding them back well enough, but eventually we ran out of rested soldiers, and we started losing ground. All but this section of the keep and the entrance courtyard have been seized by the Red Templars.

"Now, normally we would have put up a better fight, but the Reds started out in control of the lyrium stores; lyrium, as I'm sure you know, is what keeps us up for such extended durations, and also what fuels our unique powers. Without more lyrium, our fighting capabilities are more or less halved.

"To make matters worse, several of our veteran Templars didn't get the order to fall back through some mishap or another, and they and some of our best soldiers are surrounded by Red Templars - they are the best of us, but they're still just men; they can only hold out for so long. So, Lord Herald, if you've not guessed it yet, we would like you to-"

"Venture out into enemy territory and bring back lyrium, as well as rescue the veteran Templars?" Agronaak said, cutting him off. "You have 'got it,' Barris."

The Templar seemed surprised by how willingly Agronaak agreed to the task. "Yes, uh, well, alright. Go, uh, go on then. And please, don't dawdle too much; these barricades aren't the best, and we will likely need your assistance in combating the Reds - oh, and there are also demons." Agronaak fixed him with a blank stare and Barris shrank slightly beneath it. "Just... thought I'd add that there. Use the ladders in the corners and climb out of the hall that way."

"How very considerate of you, Barris." Varric said, patting the Templar on the back. "You'll have to excuse the Lord Herald. He's a bit shaken up."

"To put it lightly." Blackwall grunted, scaling the ladder.

"And what would it be if we put it heavily?" Solas mused.

"Oh my- Solas, just shut up."

"Solas," Agronaak said. The elf turned his head. "Why? Why would you say those words?" At this, Solas just shrugged and began climbing the ladder.

The four of them slowly fought their way through throngs of Red Templars on their way to the storerooms, Solas doing his best to make more and more bad jokes, much to everyone's disapproval.

"Maker fucking damn it, Solas, can you think of no other attempts at humor?" Blackwall asked as he severed a behemoth's head.

"I don't think he knows how to!" Varric quipped as he speared two Templars to a wall with a bolt from Bianca.

"You are all so bereft of humor this afternoon!" Solas said exasperatedly as a behemoth exploded into millions of shards. "Or at least good humor. You laugh at Varric's quips and sarcasm, but as soon as I try to introduce you to the fine art of wordplay, you lose the capacity to even smile!"

"It's not - GRAH! - so much that it's not clever, Solas," Agronaak grunted, wrenching his sword out of a Templar's chest. "We're all just a little - hnngh - stressed at the moment; not much of our brains are working towards appreciating the - HA! - humor. Plus, we're all used to Varric making wisecracks, while you sit snootily in the corner-"

"Pardon me?"

"You know what I'm talking about. But that's not the point. You never make jokes. Maybe we're not quite sure how to process jokes coming from an egg like you."

"... So you don't enjoy my… yolks?"

"YOU DID NOT JUST FUCKING UTTER THOSE WORDS YOU PIECE OF SHIT," Blackwall howled, whirling around.

"Oh dear, it seems he's… cracked."

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Not too long later, Agronaak returned with the lyrium and the veteran Templars, just in time to fend off a wave of Red Templars. Dozens of the Chantry's former faithful threw themselves upon the barricades against men they once called brothers, and were brought down on their blades as Agronaak drove forward past the barricades. A massive wall of red lyrium was erected in the back of the keep that would've lead out to the vista looking over the wild, and it was there that the demon had fled.

"Wasn't it supposed to be all-powerful?" Agronaak asked as he shoved a behemoth to the ground with his shield before driving his sword through its deformed skull.

"Not necessarily!" Solas called, shattering a group of Red Templars. "Envy demons are particularly strong, but far from invincible! It's likely that he's scared of all of us!"

"Probably just you, Rivaini." Varric said from behind the barricade as he fired a volley of bolts into the crowd of Templars beyond them.

"That sounds like a logical reaction!" Barris said from where he stood with his comrades. Agronaak grunted and knocked a Templar out a window with his tower shield.

After fighting far too many Red Templars, the red lyrium barrier was finally destroyed, and Agronaak sprinted out onto the vista, where a man who was definitely not Lord Seeker Lucius stood.

"How much rage must you have that you see it necessary to ruin my plans?" The Seeker shrieked at him.

"It's not about rage." Agronaak intoned. "I saw what you would have done to this world. I saw more death than was ever meant to be. I saw my friends… tortured, beaten, and harmed far more than anyone deserves. Except you, perhaps."

"You will be unable to stop me! Dead or alive, I will take your body, and your friends will suffer!" Lucius yelled at him as he exploded in a flash of green light, replaced suddenly by an enormous, ten-foot-tall, monstrosity that stood on two legs and had four long, spindly arms. It's face was covered in long, dark red scars that crossed over each other.

"Is nothing we do ever simple?" Solas asked with a long, tired, sigh.
"If it was simple, then we wouldn't be the ones doing it." Blackwall pointed out.

"Shut up. There'll be time for talking later." Agronaak snapped at them, charging into battle and roaring a wordless battle cry. The demon shrieked and sprinted to meet him, lunging for him with it's four clawed arms.

Agronaak flew into a rage more powerful than anything he had felt before. He wanted to make this... thing… feel pain like nothing else. His sword moved almost of its own accord as it severed two of its arms while his companions fought the Red Templars who threatened to ambush them. Agronaak rammed his sword through the demon's chest and pinned it to the ground, jumping on top of it and letting go of his blade. He fumbled for the creature's lost limbs and picked them up, bludgeoning the howling abomination with the severed arms as its unearthly shrieks grew louder, its black blood spurting everywhere. After he decided he'd had far too much of this monster, Agronaak dropped the arms and wrenched his sword free of the demon's torso and rammed it between the scars on it's face, and Envy was silent once more.

"Maker's breath, Agronaak…" Blackwall muttered as he looked over at him.

"Ellasin selah…" Solas muttered, looking somewhat horrified. For once, the cocksure grin on Varric's face was nowhere to be seen.

Agronaak was shaking as he slowly got back to his feet - so badly, in fact, that he had to sheath his sword and shield for fear of dropping them. He tensed as he felt a hand on his shoulder, relaxed when he realized it was only Solas, but shrugged it off all the same. His mind had become deeply clouded during the encounter with the Envy Demon, so much so that he barely registered the ferocity and brutality with which he had fought it. Had it really been necessary to… to beat the thing with its own limbs? What purpose did that serve? He already had the loyalty, at least for the time being, of everyone present. What had come over him?

"I… am sorry you had to see that," Agronaak said, attempting to steady his voice. "It was… excessive."

"Yeah… we're fine, big guy." Varric said, hiding behind Blackwall for good measure. "Just remind us never to get on your bad side."

"Lord Herald?" A Templar whose armor denoted him as a Knight-Captain asked. "What are we to do? With the Lord Seeker gone, we've no leadership." He shifted uncomfortably. "We… trust you to make the right call on the future of our order. You just saved it, after all."

"Ah yes, I suppose that is correct," Agronaak mused. He paused for a moment. "... Well, first, one might think that Knight-Templar Barris has done an astounding job at organizing the defense of the Great Hall, and should be awarded some sort of administrative position; obviously nothing as high up as Lord Seeker, of course, for there are many whose experience leaves them much better qualified for such a position or one of similar status. Secondly, I do not believe it would be wise to let the Chantry lose such a valuable force for policing and subduing mages-" Solas' brow furrowed deeply at that, but Agronaak could not bring himself to care at the moment - "-and so I think it is in everyone's best interests to keep the Templar Order alive and well.

"In addition, I would like the Templars to formally enter an alliance with the Inquisition, to the extent that your forces may be at our beck and call whenever necessary. I do not wish to sound… aggressive, but… you owe us somewhat for saving the last uncorrupted members of the Order."

"I would agree wholeheartedly." Barris said as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd. "Your decision is no doubt wise and prudent, Lord Herald."

"Thank you, Lord Herald." The Knight-Captain said, bowing. "You are most gracious.

"We should have been left to discuss this amongst ourselves." Solas muttered darkly.

"You've made a smart choice, Rivaini." Varric said. "Don't listen to Baldy over here."

"Perhaps it might've been taken into consideration, but I believe this may be for the best." Blackwall said sagely.

The four of them left Therinfal several hours later, after some much-needed recuperation time and doing what they could to help get the redoubt back in working order - most of the work was corpse removal, which they all found to be a great shame. As they rode away under a clear night sky and a full moon, Agronaak couldn't help but feel like something indescribable had changed deep within him since his encounter with the Envy Demon… and he wasn't sure he liked it.

AN: Oh, lawdy, that's a lot of sad and awful stuff. Really sorry about that, but it was definitely good, I think, to explore darker stuff with this fic in addition to the humor and sass, and I think this was a very well-written chapter. I assure you, there will be lots more sadness where this came from. Sorry again, and I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review if you liked it, or if not, feel free to offer constructive criticism. Until next time!