- Excerpt from the personal memoirs of Silandry Marath

Of course, I knew she'd been taught to speak Dwarven, but didn't know what Hawke was capable of...intellectually at least...during those days. She was paranoid about hiding it, and it wasn't until Bethany spoke up much later that we had a clue why.

No, I didn't even get a real hint about the mind behind those mismatched eyes until my husband arrived with Zek in Kirkwall.

I've always found it amusing that the fact no one- from the University to the Chantry -would help Haze on any official level came back to bite them all in the ass later. Oh, he had affiliations with the University, but at that time, you have to remember, only humans with the right bloodlines...and money...could teach and study there. He was there with the blessing and backing of several patrons on a personal level, but officially, the University had nothing to do with Haze.

They wanted to get rid of them, you see. The University wanted to get rid of Haze, the Circle wanted to get rid of Zek, and the Order wanted to get rid of Royce. They wanted them out of sight and out of mind. They weren't officially exiled to Kirkwall, but Haze was encouraged to set up some kind of learning institution in Kirkwall as a diplomatic gesture and Zek came with him. Since Zek was a mage, he couldn't very well go with just a dwarf to guard him, so they sent Royce along. Nice pairing, that. The inappropriately outspoken templar and the mouthiest elf you'll ever meet. Killed three birds with one stone and by the time they wanted all three back under control, it was way too late. And yes, I still laugh at them for it.

So they arrived in Kirkwall with a little bit of money and an old building in Lowtown. It was a rather discouraging beginning, but that's how some of the best beginnings are.

I'd just come back from Llomerryn to help him set up. At the time, I was the only one who thought having no official backing for the place was a good thing. I was especially glad the Chantry wanted nothing to do with it. They had bigger fish to fry in Kirkwall than two Orlesian scholars trying to make a library. The more the Chantry stays out of things, the better off everyone is, in my opinion. I've spent too much time around the ruins of past religions to give much credence to the ones of today. Religion is as transient as everything else, no matter how much they try to tell you otherwise.

At any rate, Alessa knocked us all for a loop that day. Haze and Zek were sitting out in front of the building, arguing (again), as we unpacked. Haze made the mistake of allowing Priam Delcor to write up the plans for converting the building and making shelves and such, all of which we had agreed to do on our own. You're not going to stop a dwarf with a little hard work. Unless said dwarf is a Paragon, I guess.

At any rate, Priam, while a great administrator and dean, also has a rather odd sense of humor. And I think he might have been slightly bored. It's a good job, Dean of Students at an infamous university, but not quite the same as being out in the field. At any rate, Priam had written the plans up as drawings with the numbers set out in a cryptogram that had my husband tearing his beard out. In Priam's defense, I don't think he was expecting that. He was most likely expecting them to be amused and solve it easily but he got a little too complex with the numbers.

All in all, it wasn't the best moment for Alessa to first be introduced to them. She came wandering up to us, drawn, no doubt, by the wagon with the University's crest on the side. Which Zek had stolen, by the way.

Haze and Zek had momentarily given up on the plans and were unloading with Royce's help. Zek was lambasting Haze for letting Priam make a fool of him like that and Haze was just shooting insults back at him because, frankly, he was right, and that only pissed my husband off further.

I made some terse introductions everyone ignored and told Alessa they were looking to establish a library, which she got very excited about.

Any other day, that would have been fine, but I still thought she was just a pest back then, looking to get herself killed on that damned Deep Roads Expedition. I remember saying something along the lines of Kirkwallers not seeming to value education that wasn't Chantry written.

"I'm not native to Kirkwall," she reminded me. She was standing just out of my sight, and I was too preoccupied to notice what she was doing. "I'm from Ferelden."

That got snorts all around. "Like Fereldens value it any more."

"Unless it's improving hound breeding, I suppose." Zek actually sounded thoughtful, not meaning that as an insult.

"That doesn't take much intellectual prowess, the training and breeding programs for mabari have been passed down through generations," she said.

"Now that I didn't know. Makes sense," Zek said thoughtfully.

"You should make sure to come around during Feastday tomorrow. This will be my second one, so I can assure you, it's a lot of free food and drink. Good free food and drink."

"Yes, yes, we were planning to. I don't mean to be rude, Hawke, but we're very busy. This is university business," I said, more to move her along before she offered to help and got underfoot.

She just nodded and fell silent though she watched us for a little while longer. Or so we thought.

It wasn't until later that Haze stalked over to the plans. I saw him stop short, staring at them. It was dark then, so he brought them over to the lamp, looking shocked.

It took the rest of us a moment to look around and notice what he was doing. Zek asked him what was wrong and Haze handed the plans over to me.

Every damn cryptogram on those plans had been solved and the answers written out.