A/N: Another rewritten chapter!

Lina

When the world around her stopped spinning, and the surroundings settled into something bare and vastly different from where she had previously been, Lina opened her eyes. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and the first thing she did was move to the side and promptly empty the contents of her stomach. The spinning hadn't made her ill; no, it was the events in the area where she'd been trapped.

Taking deep, steady breaths, Lina wiped at her mouth and thought long and hard. There was no way it was the real Tamlen; the demon would not have been stupid enough to place them both in the same dream, right? And that child! She was grieving over a child that she hadn't even birthed, who had looked so similar to both herself and Tamlen that it was unnerving. The demon knew exactly what strings to pull in her mind, and had to have dug so deeply to know what she imagined Arlathan to have looked like.

And there was still the lingering worry that she'd killed her Tamlen. Another convulsion rippled through her, although she somehow managed to keep her bile down as she shook her head madly. No, it wouldn't have been. Tamlen was stronger than her mentally; if she could sense it was a trap, he would have done so too.

A few minutes later, Lina had recovered enough to think positively, and started to wander around the seemingly empty fade island she was on. She paused after a few moments of searching, as her midnight eyes had spotted someone standing a few feet away. Cautiously, she made her way towards him, prepared to strike should it be a demon. Lina calmed somewhat when she realised he was only a mage, but then more fear lit up inside her when she realised a mage was much more likely to be possessed. Still, she thought to herself quietly, he did look like that man who had been unconscious on the floor next to the demon in the tower. She approached him carefully, her eyes guarded as he looked up and noticed her approach. He too was guarded until he realised she wasn't a demon.

"I see you're no demon. I assume you got past your personal trap?" The man asked her, brushing a hand through his brunette hair to keep it from getting in his eyes. Lina narrowed her eyes.

"That was a trap?" She asked quickly, and it seemed to her as though her words were tumbling out of her mouth in relief. The man nodded.

"The demon here, it locks us up in a dream that it thinks we can't escape. I thought I'd escaped mine, too, but I've been wandering these empty grey spaces for a lifetime. My name is Niall. I was trying to save the circle when I encountered the Sloth Demon. I expect that we had similar experiences." Lina raised an eyebrow, highly doubting that particular statement. She guessed that her eyes were still slightly red.

"You have the Litany of Adralla, don't you?" At her question, Niall grimaced slightly at her question, and shook his head at her.

"The Litany was our weapon against the blood mages' domination. But it's too late; everyone is dead."

"The blood mages' domination?" Niall blanked at her a little, before he seemed to remember that she wasn't a mage and therefore likely didn't know much about blood mages.
"They can get into your mind and take control of your body. You cannot stop what they try to make you do…but the Litany protects against it. It was our only hope of saving the circle, but now… This place drains you of everything."

"I'll find a way out." Niall scoffed at Lina's confident tone, and shook his head at her again.

"No, there isn't any way out of here. You think there might be, and you almost get there before you realise you're wrong. You see that pedestal? I've studied the runes on it- runes that signify different islands of the Sloth Demon's domain. The Sloth Demon itself is on the centre island, but you can't get there. The five islands around the centre somehow form a protective ward. I thought I was getting somewhere when I figured it out, and I went to each island in turn. It's hopeless. You'll see the path, but be unable to get to it, and it will slowly drive you mad." Lina clicked her tongue unconsciously at his words, and had to fight back the blush that rose to her cheeks at the look Niall gave her.

"Could my companions be on those islands?"

"I do not know. There were many dreamers. You might find a way to reach them through the islands, if you're lucky."

"Well then, I'm going to try it. I refuse to die here of all places." Niall scoffed once more as Lina walked away from him, towards the pedestal. He was incredulous, and likely didn't believe her. She didn't believe herself, either, if she was honest.

"Nothing dampens your spirit, does it? I'm not certain if I should be admiring you, or pitying you. Don't mind me, then." Niall could only watch her as she nodded distractedly, and started to study the pedestal herself.

Tamlen

The truth was bitter, Tamlen thought ruefully as he skidded to a halt in the middle of a convenient clearing. He was trying to find a way out without having to actually use force. He only seemed to be running in circles, however. He knew the place around him was a lie, creators forbid, he wasn't that dense. And, despite that everything being offered to him was all that he wanted, he knew Lina had more dignity than this.

That, and she'd never been that good at seduction.

A rustle behind him alerted him to the presence of the demon, and he turned in time to briefly glimpse the skin on not-Lina's arms go from purple to tanned. It confirmed his theory that he was being chased by a demon. Another give-away was the slightest purple tinge to the roots of her bright blonde hair. It was painfully obvious, and something that he'd ignored. Likely along with the painfully low cut tunic that the demon had donned.

Before the demon could move into the clearing from the trees, Tamlen took his knife from his belt and hurled it towards the demon. It caught the tunic on the demon's body, and cut through it to embed itself in the tree. It dragged the demon with it, pinning it in place against the tree. The disguise flickered for a moment as a feeling of surprise washed over the demon, before a familiar cunning smile spread across the demon's face. It was Lina's 'persuading' grin, and he was very well acquainted with it.

"Very well, mortal. You win this game." The demon kept Lina's tone of voice and appearance until Tamlen raised both his eyebrows. The demon then gave up the act completely, and returned to her true state. Tamlen briefly wondered why on Thedas the demon would take on that form when it could change at will. He pushed it from his mind when the demon spoke again.

"You know I cannot let you leave. And when you have me here, why would you want to? I can give you everything you've ever wanted, including her. All of her, inside and out." The demon leaned in as Tamlen stepped forward to pull his knife from the tree. His eyes glazed over the moment his skin brushed against hers, and every single less-than-proper thought he'd had of Lina flashed before his eyes. This had to be a desire demon. The heat of his skin, however, didn't match the heat that was playing before his eyes. That fact alone helped him to resist the hot breath on his neck and the nibble on his upper ear long enough for him to turn the knife in his hands and drive it forwards. It pushed sharply through flesh, muscle and bone, piercing the desire demon in the ribcage directly below its heart.

Pulling the knife back out, Tamlen grabbed one of its horns and yanked its head back, baring its throat to him. The blade was dragged across the demons throat before it could even resist. Warm blood sprayed out violently towards him, as black as that of the darkspawn taint and twice as disgusting. He shuddered, wiping the knife on the demons cheek before he threw it to the floor.

"I don't need your help for that. She can give me more than you ever could."

He was stuck. Lost and stuck, if he were to be honest with himself and put it simply. No matter which door he went through, he found his surroundings would change and he would end up right back at the beginning, next to that damn pedestal that had brought him here in the first place. Half of the doors were too large and heavy for him to push open, and he wondered how anyone had been able to close it. He cast a glare towards the pedestal, and his eyes widened as he noticed something peculiar. In the two hours that he'd been here, he noticed, another glowing circle now had a rune stamped over it. He frowned, and moved from the room idly as he pondered the strangeness of the situation. Had one of his companions also escaped the temptations? Had Lina? He paused, attempting to open another door before stopping completely as he heard the sounds of a flickering blaze on the other side of the door.

The other doors in the hallways all led to rooms that had been cleared out before he himself had arrived, and Tamlen carefully entered one of them once more. He wanted to re-inspect the mouse hole in one of the corners; not out of curiosity, but annoyance at how random they seemed to be. Tugging his gauntlet off, Tamlen pushed a fist into it and felt around for any switch or contraption that could open one of the giant doors. He could feel nothing that would help him.

Tamlen winced abruptly when something very sharp sliced into his knuckles several times. He could feel blood immediately warm the area as his own blood leaked from what were probably a few puncture wounds. He reached further in and curled his hand around whatever it was that had cut him, and gave a small noise of surprise when fur brushed against his fingertips. Whatever it was he had caught then proceeded to wriggle and writhe for freedom.

Pulling his hand from the hole, Tamlen moved his arm so his hand was eye level, and was even more surprised to see the tail of a very small mouse thrashing wildly as it stuck out between his fingers. He immediately took the tail in his other hand, careful as he still had his other gauntlet on, and dangled the bright golden-yellow mouse in front of him. It thrashed around wildly, attempting to swing itself up and grip the leather of his gauntlet so it could get away. At a closer look, he could tell that it was larger than a field mouse but much, much smaller than the average rat. He gave the creature a small shake, and it gave up its struggle and allowed itself to simply swing from his fingertips. When he locked eyes with the small creature, it seemed to freeze up and stared at him. Its large ears flattened in surprise.

"You bit me! Look at the state of my hand!" He paused and motioned his bloody hand before he could get annoyed, wondering if it was a demon in disguise or simply an unusually small rodent. He contemplating merely asking, but then realised that a demon probably wouldn't answer him whilst he had the upper hand. He opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped when the mouse –with unusual strength on its part- swung again and twisted its body upwards. Its paws grasped the leather ridges in his gauntlets, and it used them to climb up onto his hand. In surprise, Tamlen let go of its tail, and turned his arm over in time with the mouse until it sat in his palm. The mouse then gave him a disapproving squeak.

"Heh, for a rodent, you seem quite smart. Unusually so." His voice was mocking and, whether or not the mouse actually picked up on it, the mouse promptly crawled up to the small space between two strips of the leather on his gauntlet and bit him lightly. He resisted flailing his hand, and heard the indignant squeak that the golden-yellow mouse gave as he glared at it. To his complete surprise, the mouse glared back at him. Its eyes were clearly narrowed, convincing him that it wasn't a normal mouse.

"I don't find this funny. In fact, I'm going to kill you." Tamlen's words were serious and, the moment he moved his other hand to take the knife from his belt, the mouse turned and leapt off his hand with a loud squeak. Tamlen was completely certain that, if it didn't die immediately, it would break every bone in its tiny little body after jumping from such a height. Just before the mouse reached the floor, however, its body fuzzed in the light. A split second later, a very relieved Lina was stood in its place. She whispered his name to herself with a grin of delight, before she dashed towards him and nearly crashed into him. Her hands moved to his shoulders, and she shook him as though to reassure herself that he was actually there. Her next words tumbled from her lips before she could stop them.

"Thank the creators; I thought I'd killed you!"