I suspected we could have made it to the Keep by midnight if we pushed on after dark, but didn't want to take the risk with so many untested recruits. Travel after dark, especially with a large loud group, was an open invitation to bandits. Sitting in an open wagon we'd be perfect targets for archers, and we wouldn't be able to keep the wheels or the horses silent. Plus, arriving early in the day meant we could get in and out of the deep roads and to the Joining before assigning anyone quarters. I didn't want to do that until we knew who would actually end up among our ranks. As Oghren had pointed out, assigning someone a room for them to die a few hours later would just disturb everyone whenever they passed the door.

Camp was much more chaotic than the previous night since everyone had an entire day of talking on the wagons to get used to each other. Sigrun was trying to teach several people traditional Dwarven folk dancing at one end, I watched Joanna shake her fist at Cormac for stepping on her foot again, Brendan and Vivian seemed to be having better luck. Nathaniel was watching Sigrun dance with Thomas with a scowl, but kept refusing her invitations to join them. Rose was playing a lute at the other end, accompanying Roland who was singing an old ballad. Everyone else was sparring or cooking. I have to admit, seeing at least one of the recruits had some musical aptitude made me smile. I'd missed Leliana's songs around the fire. I tried not to get too excited, though. Who knew what tomorrow would bring.

Sitting near Oghren I accepted his flask gratefully, but allowed myself just a small sip. Maker only knows what he had in there. "Kind of nice," I said. "Having a lot of people around again."

He shrugged. "Don't want to get attached just yet." I nodded in understanding. Oghren, for all his gruff exterior, was a fiercely devoted friend once you won his trust. Granted, winning that trust wasn't easy, but I couldn't blame him after all he'd been through.

"Me too," I admitted. "I'm surprised; I expected a bit more trouble from the knights after Alistair's warnings."

He laughed at that, almost falling backwards off the log. "You didn't hear? They pulled that with Nathaniel." Laughing again, Oghren straightened his posture. "That's Ser Whatever" he said, imitating a noble tone of voice. "Little Nate told them if they pulled that around you they'd be picking their teeth out of their arses. Lectured them on the whole order of equals thing you love so much."

"Good," I said. "That's what I said he should do if he got any attitude. I would have said the same myself, if I wasn't… "

Oghren shook his head, "Nasty business, that attack." I nodded in agreement. "I hear you barreled headfirst into him and knocked him clean off his feet."

"Yep," I said. "Held him with a dagger I'd hidden in my dress while Anders disarmed him."

"That's our girl," Oghren said, clapping me on the back. "But, when I said run headlong into danger I was being all poetic about it. Next time keep the weapon in front, not your skull." I had to laugh at that. "I'll make a real warrior of you yet," Oghren added. He stood up, grabbing his axe. "C'mon, grab your weapons. Let's go." I stood, walking a safe distance from the fire. Oghren stopped me as I was about to cast my arcane warrior spell. "No, Maggie," he said. "You keep fighting templars like this you'll need to do it without magic."

"Fine," I agreed, "but I'm casting a shield. I don't have armor on. I need to change swords, too. This one's magical, I need the spells to wield it properly."

He rolled his eyes so I handed him Spellweaver. Oghren held it for a moment before wincing. "Sodding thing's squirming in my hand like a nug that knows it's dinner!" He handed it back quickly with a look of disgust. "Never felt a weapon that acted like it wanted to get away."

"Magical," I said again. "Only a mage can wield it, and usually only when combined with the proper spells." I ducked into my tent, returning a moment later with Duncan's sword and dagger. "Let's go!"

Oghren swung at me, I did my best to dodge his attacks, jumping or rolling on occasion. At the same time, I tried to twist myself to get into his blind spot and attack. I knew he was going easy on me, but that was just fine. I needed practice, and I wouldn't get much of it if Oghren took my head off in one swoop of his axe, something I'd seen him do many times. I had just started to work up an actual sweat when I realized we were attracting an audience. I tried to hide my disappointment; I wasn't fantastic with blades and would rather not give the recruits the impression that I was incompetent. It was a fine line. I didn't like them acting as though my feet didn't hit the ground when I walked, but I also wanted to make sure they all knew I was perfectly capable of leading us in battle.

Oghren came at me again, swinging low this time so I couldn't duck. I hopped into the air, tossing myself forward and to the left of him, a move I'd picked up from Zevran. Tucking into a roll on the ground before popping back to my feet, I tapped his shoulderblades with the pommels of my weapons. "Trying to make me look good?" I whispered.

"Can't have them thinking you're just some soft mage," he replied. I shook my head and bounced back, waiting for him to charge again. This time I tried to dart towards him right away, but I created an opening. The axe stopped less than an inch from my side, reflecting off my magical shield. "Can't have them thinking I'm a wimp, either," he added. We went back and forth a little while longer until I had to stop, my arms were getting sore.

Rose and Vivian approached me after we were done. "May I see that sword?" Rose asked.

I handed it over. "It belonged to Duncan, he recruited me and died at Ostagar. I normally use another one that's actually designed for a mage, it channels spells just as a staff would." She hefted it a few times, looked me over and looked back at the blade before passing it to her friend, who did the same.

"Have you tried using just two daggers?" she asked. "Many women find it easier, they're not as heavy, and you can be more flexible without taking a long blade into account." She flushed for a moment.

"Not that we're saying you need help or anything," Vivian hastily added. "We just-"

I waved my hand. "I picked up a sword for the first time less than three years ago, believe me, I know I'm far from an expert. I appreciate the advice, I never tried using just daggers," I admitted. "I already have a match for this one, too" I said, gesturing to Duncan's silverite dagger. "It was also Duncan's, he got them when he was conscripted, from his Commander. To be honest, I know several spells that bolster my strength and agility that I'd normally use in combat. After the attack this week I'm trying to get better without relying on any magic. Just in case."

"Well, give it a shot, you might find it easier. I know I do, and yours are much nicer than the garbage we have," Vivian said.

"We have plenty of weapons and armor at the Keep," I assured her, "we'll get you set up properly. Thank the Maker for our brothers and sisters in Orlais, after the attack destroyed our armory they sent us a wagon full of equipment."

"Orlais?!" Rose gasped, looking at me like I'd just told her the archdemon was our head cook.

"I'm Commander of Ferelden, but I serve the world. Wardens don't concern ourselves with things like nationality, we're all one order working for one goal." I shrugged. "Honestly, it's not just like becoming a knight or something, I really can't explain it but I promise you will understand after. I would feel a closer kinship with an Orlesian Warden than I would with a soldier from the Ferelden Army." I leaned towards them, adopting a conspiratorial stance. "I admit, though, I am far more, hmmm… let's say enthusiastic about the order than most Wardens. I don't mean to say they aren't as well, just not to the degree I am."

Rose laughed. "Well, you are the commander, I wouldn't expect anything less." She paused for a moment, evaluating the group. "Can you tell us, have there been many elves in the Wardens?"

"Of course," I said. "Humans are the largest percentage, but there are simply more of us overall in Thedas. We had a dalish woman in our ranks, but she was lost in the attack on our Keep." Ah, there we go, the perfect way to say 'she may have been killed but we all suspect she simply took off since most dead people leave a corpse and she could disappear with magic.' "The hero of the fourth blight, Garahel, was an elf, too, so it's not just rank and file. We have a fantastic painting of him slaying the archdemon, I'm waiting for the main hall to be rebuilt to hang it back up. We don't care about race, or gender for that matter. If you have the skills we want you, and we treat everyone exactly the same."

"People do say that about the Wardens," Vivian said, "but…"

"But people say a lot of garbage that isn't true," I finished. She nodded in agreement. "In this case it is."

"So you and him?" Vivian asked suddenly, gesturing to Anders who was casting spells with Aidan. Her grin was loaded with mischief. "That's allowed?" Rose groaned, covering her face briefly.

"Me and him," I said simply. "We're not templars or anything, no vow of celibacy, no rules against fraternizing. We don't have easy lives," I said, mentally adding 'or long.' "I figure might as well find happiness where you can just so long as you don't let things interfere with duty."

"Good to know," she said, smile growing a little broader as she looked over at some of the men sitting by the fire. The two women shared a glance before wandering off.

Anders and I sat keeping the fire going on watch that night. "Home tomorrow," he said.

"Thank the Maker, I miss our room. The palace is nice and all, but the bedrooms don't suit me."

"Too many templars in them," he agreed.

"My thoughts exactly." I heard a rustling behind us and jumped to my feet, reaching for my staff.

"Um… hello," Roland said, looking embarrassed. "I'm just, um…" he shrugged and blushed when I hid my grin with my hand. "Yeah. Well, have a good night."

"Goodnight, Roland," I said as he darted into a different tent.

"I see they're making friends already," Anders quipped when I sat back down.

I shrugged. "Most of them are worried they'll die tomorrow. Some will. Can you blame them?"

"Not at all," Anders agreed. We were surprised again about an hour later when Vivian tried to creep out of her tent. She stammered an apology but Anders waved her off. "Have fun," he added with a grin as she darted into another tent. I had no idea whose it was. Aidan was next, smoothing his slicked back hair as he stomped across the campsite leaving a faint trail of cologne in his wake. He flashed us a grin and thumbs up before slipping into another tent. I couldn't help but grin back. Being from the Circle as well, he was the only one who knew we really wouldn't care what anyone was up to.

"You know," I said, "I kind of want to stand up, call everyone out and tell them just pair up now so they don't keep startling us. I'd feel awful if I hit someone with lightning."

"I don't know, I'm enjoying watching them squirm." He laughed. "I wonder if we should go pick up Nathaniel and toss him in Sigrun's tent."

"Now there's an idea," I said. "It might just put a smile on his face. Or he might kill us for it."

"True enough," he sighed. "I do hope they don't get so caught up in their fun that second watch forgets to relieve us. I'll be very annoyed to be kept from our fun."

I giggled at that before returning my mind to work. "Anyways," I said. "I'm trying to plan out tomorrow. I figure we each take two and head into the deep roads, through the basement door. Just long enough to get everyone a kill and collect some blood."

"I didn't need to collect any blood," Anders said.

"Well, the Keep isn't covered in darkspawn corpses anymore. At least, I hope not. We have been gone a few days, though…"

"Is it usually the deep roads? Seems kind of fitting, starting and ending your life as a Warden in the same place. A kind of creepy and soul crushing symmetry, if you will."

I shrugged. "No idea. I went into the Korcari Wilds for mine. Just figure we're bound to find some darkspawn down there, and that basement entrance is awfully handy."

"Well, that sounds good. I mean, even I should be able to keep an eye on two recruits."

"I would hope so," I laughed. "Tradition says the junior member of the order would do it, but I don't want to stick Sigrun with ten green people, that's way too many for one Warden."

Anders nodded in agreement, looking horrified at the thought of leading that many people. Once we were finally relieved he pulled me into our tent, muttering "our turn."

He was sitting up in our bedroll when I woke, looking forward. "So, just a few more hours," Anders said. "We'll see how they fare."

I leaned into his shoulder. "Just remember we do what we have to. If there were no Wardens…" I was reminding myself as much as him.

"I know," he said. "Believe me, I know. Doesn't make it any easier to look them in the eye, knowing they might choke on darkspawn blood." He sighed. "They're all so young, too. I swear there couldn't be a single one over five and twenty."

"That's older than I was," I reminded him, "I'm only six and twenty now. I think. And I know for a fact some of them are older than I am. Hate to tell you, but in terms of new Wardens you're an old man. Well, for a human or an elf. A lot of dwarves are older but they live a bit longer than us to begin with."

"What?" he looked at me, shocked.

"Sorry. Not many recruits over thirty, that's what Riordan told me. He had been your age, and that was apparently unusual." Granted, this was right before we put perhaps the oldest Warden recruit ever through the Joining.

"Well now I feel ancient."

I laughed. "Think about it. Thirty years as a warden? How many men would still be able to wield a blade at sixty? We're mages, that's another story. Wynne kept up with me throughout the blight and she has to be in her seventies at least."

"And here I looked forward to getting good and soft in my old age," Anders remarked with a chuckle.

"Come on," I prodded him. "Let's get home."

We made good time, arriving at the Keep by lunch. While we had all sung drinking songs yesterday, and I even shared a few of the old songs Loghain had taught me from the occupation, today we were subdued. I noticed that, despite the activities of the previous night, no one seemed to have paired up. That was a slight relief, dealing with the guilt of being among the survivors was tough enough without adding some level of heartbreak into the mix. Even us Wardens kept quiet, sharing occasional nervous or guilty glances.

Varel jogged out to meet us when the wagons pulled in. I was thrilled to see workmen had started on Master Wade's shop. It would be good to have our own smith again, and I hoped he would be happier now since I insisted the building be enclosed like his store in Denerim instead of open like the old one. Wade was constantly complaining about the cold, even leaning over his forge. Plus, if they were working on the smithy, it meant the kitchen had been completed.

Hopping down from the wagon I gripped Varel's arm in greeting. "Take a look," I said, passing him a box Alistair had given me. He opened it and gasped. "Yep. Eight thousand sovereigns for the repairs. Main hall and stairs next."

He glanced down into the box. "And then some."

"Good. I've got some ideas!"

Varel shook his head at that. Looking up, his eyes scanned over the large group. "Maker's breath, ten? I'm impressed, Maggie."

"Oh, you won't even believe the half of it," I told him. "I assume we have a kitchen again? Let's have them make a big lunch for everyone and we can tell you about our trip." He nodded, smiling, and I pulled him aside. "Have someone start building the pyre," I said when I was satisfied no one could hear us. Varel's grin crashed to the ground. "And send a fast rider for a priest. Not the Revered Mother, if possible, she loathes me and I won't have her disrespecting a Warden funeral. Get Moira, she's nicer. We'll have services for any who don't make it tomorrow morning." He nodded, understanding.

An hour later we were sitting in the dining hall. It was basically still a bare stone room with a few makeshift wooden supports here and there, but the new dining table had finally been finished. The old table barely filled a quarter of the room. This one was massive; it fit all of us with space to spare. I would still need to worry about getting a real mess hall set up eventually, one that would hold a hundred or more, but for now this would do.

"So you turned the assassination of the Grand Cleric and an attack she arranged against you into a huge support rally for mages and Wardens," Varel said, eyes wide.

"You should have seen her," Sigrun said. "The crowd went nuts."

Nathaniel nodded. "I thought she was going to get us all killed, but the people loved it." He shook his head. "It kind of scares me how easily Maggie can play helpless and innocent."

I fumbled with my knife, sending it skittering across the table. "Blast," I sighed. "Can you help with this? I'm all thumbs today." I passed Nathaniel the crusty white roll the kitchen had made up.

"Sure," he said, cutting it in half and handing it back. At the last moment his hand froze. "Maker's breath, you just-"

"Got you good," Oghren said, laughing.

"Fine," he said, "I'm keeping the bread for that."

Once the meal was over and the recruits had gotten over their shock of realizing we actually ate like that all the time and not just at camp, we all armed ourselves and I gathered everyone in the main hall. We had carried our bags and trunks back upstairs, but the recruits' items were all in the hall stacked neatly to one side.

"All right," I said, "everyone who specializes in ranged attacks stand over there," I pointed. Tobias stepped aside. "Aidan, unless you're a mage who can only attack by touch, that means you, too." He laughed and joined Tobias. Most people thought of bows and crossbows when they thought of ranged attacks, not magic.

I looked at the rest of the group. "OK, rogues to the left, warriors to the right." The group was slightly weighted in favor of rogues.

"Tobias, with Oghren, Aidan, with Sigrun." That was easy, one ranged fighter per group.

"Vivian, you're with Oghren, Arthur, with Sigrun." I glanced over the remaining recruits. "Thomas and Rose go with Nathaniel, Cormac and Brendan with Anders, Roland and Joanna with me."

I nodded with satisfaction. One ranged attacker, one rogue, and one warrior per group, "I love when things work out," I added aloud. Varel handed me a bag of glass vials. I gave one to each recruit. "We're going into the Deep Roads," I began. "We have an entrance in our basement with a barrier door. Once there we'll seek out some darkspawn, kill them, and you all bring back a vial of blood."

"We're going to look for darkspawn?" Tobias said, eyes wide.

"Yep. You have to kill at least one before you become a Warden."

"How do we find them," Rose asked.

"All Wardens can sense darkspawn," Nathaniel said. "That's not just a saying or a myth, it's true. We can find them, and we can make sure you don't get ambushed."

"Any questions?" I asked.

"Is this the Joining?" Roland asked.

"This is preparation for it. The Joining will take place as soon as we get back."

"Is this the dangerous part you mentioned?" Thomas asked me.

I glanced over at the rest of the Wardens. "No, this isn't. That's all I can tell you now. If anyone has second thoughts this will be your last chance to back out." No one said anything, but they looked at each other. I hoped they realized how serious I was. I thought back to Duncan cutting Jory down at our joining and knew someday I would have to do the same thing. Hopefully not today, though. "All right," I said finally when I waited long enough. "Let's get moving."

We headed out of the Keep. The upper levels of the basement access building were gone, but Varel had cleared the stairway for us and the workmen had installed a makeshift door over it. Everyone pounded down the stairs after me, hesitating only briefly at the ladder. Finally, we made it to the old barrier door. I glanced around. "OK, Anders, Oghren, and Nathaniel, your groups go ahead. Sigrun and I will stay here with our groups to make sure none slip past you into the keep. When you get back we'll head out."

"How did you decide that," Sigrun asked with curiosity.

"We've got two mages who can heal, one there one here. Also, I'm the best at sensing darkspawn. From here I'll know if there's a problem better than I would isolated out there. Plus, they can sense me, so I'd rather go out in a smaller group. None of you have been Wardens long enough for that yet."

"I can heal, too," Aidan said.

"I was counting you. I can't heal. Not decently, at least. In a life or death situation I can manage, but it'll scar horribly at best."

Roland looked at me. "You can't heal? You?"

"Yes, me," I said, laughing. "Why, did you hear otherwise?"

"No," he replied. "It's just," he shrugged, "you're, well, you. The Hero of Ferelden. The legend. I didn't think there was anything you couldn't do."

I shook my head. "Sorry to disappoint, I'm afraid the stories about me are a bit overblown."

"What kind of magic can you do?" Arthur asked me.

"I focus on Primal, that's the school dealing with elemental powers. Fire, ice, lightning, earth. It's a combat school. The First Enchanter once told me I was the best he'd ever seen, but I think he was just saying that in the hopes that it would keep me in line. Didn't work." I shrugged with a grin. "I used to be good at entropy but I don't use it much anymore, so I'm rusty. Attacks to confuse or misdirect don't work great on darkspawn, since they're mostly mindless to begin with."

"So the Circle basically trained you to be the ideal combat mage?" Joanna asked.

"No, they don't pick our specializations. Every mage has a natural affinity for one school or another. So if anyone made me the ideal combat mage it would be the Maker. I picked a few things up after leaving, too."

Aidan cast me a glance, a grin forming. "And what did you learn outside the Circle?"

"Battlemage, of course. It wasn't taught until recently, after I left the Circle, but I got the manuals and learned on my own. I'm the first Arcane Warrior in a few hundred years. Ancient lost Dalish technique, helps you turn magical power into strength for mages who fight with blades and in close combat wearing armor." He looked impressed with that idea. "I could teach you, I taught Anders not long ago. Amazingly useful stuff." I paused, thinking. "Hm, I can do a bit of shapeshifting, but nothing helpful. Housecat or wolf is pretty much it, both utterly useless in combat." Eyes widened at that, I shrugged. I didn't want to tell them about the blood magic, not yet at least.

We stood in silence for a bit, watching the deep roads. "Something," I said raising my hand. I closed my eyes and stepped forward, since being close to another Warden had been triggering false alarms for me recently. Sigrun held the recruits back. I returned a moment later. "Someone's on their way back. Not darkspawn, Warden."

"You can pick up Wardens now?" Sigrun asked me.

"Yeah, that's new. Last couple weeks or so. I almost had a heart attack the other day, I woke up and thought darkspawn were nearby but I was just sensing Anders next to me. Duncan told me it might happen, but it's not a given. I thought I was getting really good at it just before we left, but it turns out I was thrown off by being around Alistair. His joining was six months before mine, so he's even more-" Realizing I was saying too much I snapped my jaw closed after uttering "We'll talk later." Sigrun glanced from the recruits to me and nodded in understanding. A moment later I saw Anders turn a corner and wave at us, grinning.

"Am I first?" he asked, pulling me into his arms for a quick kiss, pausing only for a moment to wipe the darkspawn blood that had splashed onto him off his mouth first. I wondered briefly what that was about, but figured he would explain later. I suspected it was more than just him missing me after being apart for an hour or two. "Ha! Can't wait to tell that ale swilling mountain of belches I beat him back."

"How did it go?"

"Easy," he said. "We found a group right away. Not many, either. Less than ten. No problems. There is a big group wandering around out there, though, so watch out." I glanced at Cormac and Brendan. Both looked slightly queasy and didn't seem to share his assessment, ether that it was easy or that less than ten qualified as not many. Not that I could blame them, Maker knows I would have thought the same at one point.

"You two all right?" I asked them. They nodded slowly. I walked closer to them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Look, they're horrifying at first, we all think so. Maker's breath, the first time I saw darkspawn I had been out of my apprenticeship for all of two weeks and almost passed out in terror. I totally froze and Alistair had to come up behind me and scream 'move it, recruit,' in my ear. I promise you, it gets so much easier." Sigrun and Anders both voiced an agreement to that. "Why don't you two have a seat and relax a bit." They both muttered a thanks and shuffled over to sit against the wall. I pulled Anders aside, out of earshot from the group. "Well?"

"Cormac got rather ill, and I think Brendan didn't only so he could hold it over his head." I shrugged, that wasn't an abnormal reaction. "When it came down to it, though, they both fought. Neither panicked in battle, neither ran. They saved the vomiting for later. Both spent far too much time discussing you while we looked for darkspawn." I raised my eyebrow at that. "Evidently I'm a very lucky man," Anders went on, "and they detailed exactly why." Well, that would explain his little show of territoriality when they returned. I was curious as to what, specifically, they mentioned, but I could tell it wasn't the time to ask. Anders was visibly annoyed just bringing it up. I put my arms around his neck.

"Don't be jealous," I whispered, kissing him again.

"I'm not," he said. "Well, not usually."

"The novelty will wear off soon," I promised. "I'm a lot less exciting once you realize I don't float into rooms on a cloud of magic and kill darkspawn with a glance." Anders cast me a dubious look but the return of Nathaniel and Oghren's groups cut our conversation off. Nathaniel was talking to the recruits softly. Trying to calm them down as I had been, I guessed.

We walked over, joining them. "How did it go?" I asked. Tobias and Vivian looked a bit queasy, but Rose and Thomas were all but beaming.

"Would it sound strange to say that was kind of fun," Rose asked me.

"Well, not to us," I told her. "Although I've found though personal experience most people find it odd when I say that." I pulled Oghren and Nathaniel aside to see how their groups fared, finding they were basically the same as Anders' results, and Thomas was doing a phenomenal job of hiding that he had been violently ill after killing his first darkspawn. With a final warning to stay put and guard the entrance I glanced at Sigrun. "Our turn," I said.

"About time," she replied, grinning.