She hadn't planned on sleeping tonight. She thought to keep herself awake moping in her own self-inflicted misery over the events that had finally led to her freedom. She was tired, hurt, distraught that she'd had to resort to blood magic to secure her own survival, but she was free. Fully, truly free of the ties that had kept her looking over her shoulder. The last leash that could have possibly dragged her back to a life at the Circle had been severed. But she knew that there was a cost, and it presented itself the moment that her eyes had finally slipped closed.

Again she found herself in an all-too familiar clearing among the Fade. Rolling earth cracked from dryness as if it had never seen rain, hulking jagged twisted rocks that protruded from odd places, and statues of some lost culture that seemed to come alive when you weren't looking directly on them. The ground shook as some lumbering Fade beast walked toward her, and Solona spun to see a large purple demon stomping her way. It was taller than a house and nearly as wide, all covered in muscle and spikes, multiple beady black eyes inlaid into a flat shield-like face. Nervousness flared in her belly and she gripped her staff, trying to wake. She had no wish to face off with a demon of Pride…

When the creature came within easy charging distance it began to glow. Light swirled around its figure and the creature condensed into a human-shaped form of pure energy and light. When the glow faded, she saw that it was Mouse, his haughty expression turned on her in full. "I am glad you finally accepted my offer. Doesn't it feel good to have such power? To dominate the field so completely with a wave of your hand?" He walked within arms length and then placed his hands on his hips, his voice practically purring with pleasure.

She felt dirty with him staring at her like that, felt horrible that she had indeed succumbed to temptation when she had been thrust between a rock and a hard place, quite literally. Solona gripped her staff harder, her nails digging into the wood of her staff. "I will not use it again." She swore, feeling anger at Mouse and her own weakness bubbling just beneath the surface. "I am free of my tethers. I don't need your wretched blood magic anymore, or any other power you'd like to tempt me with. Be gone, and bring me to this place no more. You will only receive the same answer, no matter what lies you whisper to me."

Mouse narrowed his eyes, the illusion of the man flickering to reveal the snarling face of the Pride demon that lurked just beyond the façade. "You think to send me running with such a display of bravado?" He hissed, thrusting his arms behind him and holding one wrist with his other hand, presumably to keep from pummeling Solona. He began to pace slowly around her, like a predator that stalks its prey, eyes narrowed dangerously. "You are mistaken if you think you can simply forget what I have taught you. It is not some obscure lesson that one can study for the sake of passing a hurdle. No, it is ingrained in you now. The magic has always been in your blood, but you were too weak, too shy and cowed by useless trivialities to try and tap the wealth of power that laid within you, that still lies dormant!"

She watched him cautiously, following his movements though keeping her feet planted firmly. His angry face had switched to one of sly cunning, a look that she disliked far more than his barely tamed rage.

"Can you draw upon your powers without thinking of the destruction that you could unleash, if only you willed it?" He paused at her side, lifting his hands and the image of faceless men in the all too familiar armor of Templars appeared at his sides, surrounded them in a ring of gleaming metal. "It felt good, didn't it? To feel the pulse of another, to reach out and take control of his body, his mind, and know that he was yours?"

One of the Templars charged her, and Solona quickly sent out a spell, ice coating him from head to toe when he was no more than a foot away. Angrily, she brought down her staff and shattered the illusion, smoke scattering from the icy shell as it broke and faded quickly into the air.

"You could kill them with a thought." Mouse whispered, suddenly standing at her side, his breath tickling her ear. A shudder of revulsion ran down her spine. "You could make them kill each other with a thought. You'd only have to think it and spill your blood, let the glorious power surge forth." With a wave, the demon bade the illusions of the Templars disappear, dissolving into puddles of blood that seeped into the dry cracked earth. One remained however, standing directly in front of her, his sword sheathed and a shield bucked on his back. "But control is not always about killing." His voice had dropped low, almost a seductive purr, and he gestured toward the single remaining Templar.

He took off his helmet slowly with both hands, and Solona couldn't help but to go rigid. She would have recognized that jaw anywhere, and the slow reveal only confirmed her suspicions. It was Aedan, his hair slightly rumpled from sitting under the helmet and his chin dark and unshaven. But there was something wild about his face in the Fade; perhaps it was the look in his eyes, or the sharpened planes of his face. There was a ripple of power around his body, and she knew that he was no mere illusion, but something of more substance than simple Fade smoke.

Mouse was at her other ear now, and she felt his hands on her shoulders, guiding her forward even as Aedan walked to meet them. "Why deny yourself your desire for him?" He whispered, and didn't wait for her to answer the question. "Because he will not look at you. You are a mage, and you know what he is. He has been long mentored by your Chantry and their frightened blathering. He fears you deep in his heart; you are no more than a tool. Once you have fulfilled his designs, he will leave."

She shook her head, though her eyes remained locked to Aedan's passive grey ones. "He doesn't fear me. He is not a mindless servant of the Chant."

"You thought he spoke truthfully?" Mouse asked, a great deal of astonishment in his voice, as if no sane non-mage would ever actually say as much with a straight face. "You are a clever girl, surely you didn't believe his guile." When Solona didn't immediately come up with a clever retort, Mouse pressed on. "Embrace what I have to teach you, and you will be able to make him forget his fears. You could make him follow you unquestioningly." He pushed her forward a step until she was practically chest to chest with him.

This close she had to crane her neck back slightly to meet his eyes, and when she did her breath caught. He was looking at her like… well, like she didn't know what precisely, but it was so hard to look away, to even breathe. An impulse to draw into his arms overwhelmed her and she nearly followed it, only the sight of his Templar armor stopping her. He would never wear such a thing. "No." She hissed, gripping her staff hard and turning her face downward with the greatest amount of will she could muster.

Behind her, Mouse quickly grew irritated, but she didn't care, whirling on him. "I will not take anything more you have to offer, demon. I did not escape the chains of the Circle only to have you throw more on me."

He growled, the illusion of the human body flickering to reveal the more intimidating demon body that was his true self. "You will not deny me your body." He hissed.

Suddenly she felt arms around her, holding her staff from behind. Solona recognized the hands immediately, and the ugly barren landscaped morphed and changed to that of a forest lit only by a small campfire and the stars that looked on silently overhead. They were in a clearing, Mouse had vanished, and she could feel the solid presence of Aedan's body behind her, his lips close to her ear. "I will protect you." He murmured, voice low and gruff. There was an odd simultaneous overtone and undertone to his voice, a strange distortion that shouldn't have been there. "We could remain like this forever." He pulled her closer by drawing her staff towards himself, pressing his chest firmly against her back and trapping her between the solid mass of his body and the wooden staff that they both held. His lips found her jaw, brushed it lightly as a breeze then worked lower toward her neck.

Solona nearly gave in, a strange haze clouding her mind. 'It's all so wrong.' She thought, reflexively gripping her staff when the Fade-Aedan planted a long slow kiss on her neck. 'He would never…' Power flared in her staff, and the air around her suddenly skyrocketed in temperature. Fade-Aedan jerked back with a cry that very distinctly held the overtones of a womanly scream, and Solona whirled, pointed her staff directly at the armored chest. She saw purple skin under the illusion of Aedan's well-tanned face, horns spiraling from his forehead in the shadows when the firelight flickered. 'So, Mouse has recruited a Desire demon into his enclave?'

That worried her, and before the Desire demon could try and re-enslave her with its sexual wiles, she summoned lightning and ice from her fingers, shocking then freezing the demon solid. The illusion of the forest wavered and dissipated. 'A weak Desire demon, however.' The hulking form of Mouse in his full demonic glory hovered nearby, looking very angry.

"I'll have no more of this, Mouse!" Solona yelled, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. She retreated a step, brandishing her staff and gathered her will, feeling the demon press against her attempt to escape his realm that he'd drawn her to. "I want no deals from you, no more power. I have no desire or want for it. LEAVE ME ALONE!" All at once she let her mana burst forth, a terrible wave of fire exploding seemingly directly on Mouse's head. He screamed and his will to keep her pressed in the Fade wavered and disappeared. She took the small opportunity to escape, her Fade-self fading as she returned to her mortal body.

-0-0-0-

Solona woke with a start, sitting bolt upright with her heart pounding and a cold sweat on her brow. A big warm body lay next to her and she looked down fearing to see that maybe he hadn't woken up after all and the Desire demon had perhaps conjured Aedan or else her brief Templar lover next to her in an attempt to sway her. But when she looked down she didn't see metal, leather or even bare skin, but fur and solid muscle.

A sigh escaped her lips in relief, and she sunk her hands into the thick but short fur of Keran, glad that she had woken up next to Mabari. The huge dog stretched and cast a baleful look on her, then resumed sleeping, his big head having been nestled on her leg just above her knee.

It was dark yet, though the moon was no longer out and the barest hint of the approaching dawn was lighting the sky, turning it from the deep velvety blue to a lighter grey. Her eyes cast around the small hollow they had bedded down in, a mere gap in the trees with a large boulder that seemed to be supported by two terribly large old oak trees looming over them and providing shelter from the weather. The remains of a fire smoldered just a few feet away, and within arm's reach lay Aedan, his back turned to her, chest expanding and receding with the even deep breaths of sleep.

It took a good few moments before Solona trusted herself to lay back down and look up at the stars overhead. Her limbs trembled from the memory of the nightmare, knowing that Mouse would not give up on his quest to obtain her body for his own designs, despite having dropped a powerful fireball on his head. That more than nearly being tempted by the Desire demon set her to worrying. She could hold off Mouse, but between his silvery tongue and the powerful grip that the Fade-Aedan seemed to have on her, she didn't know how many times she could fend them off. Fighting the temptations that they presented of power and more… physical things had been mentally wearing, despite having nearly slept through the whole night. Spending her nights battling demons and her days battling through the ever-thickening forest as they headed farther south and west to lead a false trail for any Templars that might come looking for them, she would be utterly exhausted in a few short days in every respect. What's more, the Veil seemed to be getting thinner the farther through the forest they traveled. She could feel the whispers of the Fade even in her waking moments here, which was disturbing to no end and no doubt made it far easier for Mouse to hunt her down and drag her unconscious mind into his little corner of the Fade.

She lay on her side, head pillowed in the crook of her arm with Keran's head now resting on her thigh instead since she'd shifted positions. Her hand wandered the muscles of the mabari's strong back, knowing that she'd smell entirely of dog the next day but didn't particularly care. Solona had a sneaking suspicion that he'd known she was having a nightmare and had tried to comfort her as she'd seen him do with Aedan on numerous occasions when the man had lapsed into brooding silence.

Her thoughts wandered over the events directly after putting the Templars out of their misery for good. She was sure that Aedan didn't know she had used blood magic, having probably passed out before things got gruesome and been too weary and near death to notice the initial surge of power. He'd been gentle and quiet with her ever since she broke down and made his whole front wet by sobbing all over it. During questioning afterwards she'd told him that she was just so relieved it brought her to tears, and so scared of nearly dying in the process that she'd hardly even realized she'd trapped the poor man in a death grip. Afterwards, Aedan had dragged the bodies of the dead Templars together and Solona had given them a makeshift pyre by setting them aflame, their corpses burning to ash in the more or less traditional Ferelden way.

The Templars had come far more better equipped to be trekking out in the wilds than they had, and without a second thought they had pilfered the bodies before setting them to rest. They had food now, as well as gear for bedding down, though since the night was so clear they hadn't bothered to put up the small tent that they'd scavenged. They also had food now, and the Templars had been sneaking lyrium dust with them to fuel their addiction to the stuff and power necessary to take down a rogue mage. She was still in shock that she'd been able to fell them all, but then again Jowan had mustered enough power to take out several Templars including the Knight-Commander and the First Enchanter in one fell swoop when he'd run from the tower. If he could do it as an apprentice, then she as a fully harrowed mage shouldn't have been so surprised that she could muster the same amount of power when her life was on the line.

Her thoughts turned back toward the end of that battle, her fingers flexing unconsciously to mimic the motions she'd used to summon her power at the behest of the blood magic. Magic had sung in her veins, and though she felt dirty for betraying her deepest set moral, at the time it would have been thrilling if she weren't so out of her mind with desperation. The draw to use it was incredible, though it was painful to convert her very life into dangerous spells. As her mind replayed the events she realized with no small amount of horror that not only had she used the foul gift against the Templars, but Aedan and Keran had probably suffered for it as well. She had been deeply in tune with them, monitoring the flow of their life force in that final confrontation between her and the last remaining Templar. Energy that wasn't her own had flooded her body and helped her to dominate the last opponent. Was it possible that she had taken that power from Aedan and Keran without doing it on purpose? She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling more sadness and horror well up within her. What sort of monster was she?

Keran shifted under her hand, standing and stretching with a huge yawn then turned and licked her face with a big slobbery tongue. Solona pushed his face away with a noise of disgust, wiping at the mabari spit that was now all over her cheek. "I don't know where your mouth has been, dog." She grumbled, using a corner of her cloak to wipe away at the slobber, though still felt rather nasty despite drying it all off. "You kill people with that thing."

Apparently completely unaffected by Solona's rejection of his show of affection, Keran grabbed her sleeve in his mouth and started tugging until she stood with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. "You had better not be dragging me off to chase rabbits." She mumbled, following the dog as he walked in front of her, navigating through the forest with his stubby tail wagging furiously.

By the time that morning broke over the forest in full, Solona was feeling much better about everything, having had to chase down Keran randomly throughout the forest, only for the dog to eventually lead her back to camp where Aedan had managed to thoroughly tangle himself up in his sleeping mat. She couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her at the sight, wondering what sort of dreams he had to get him into such a state when he was normally so still. With the unpleasantness of her dreams pushed out of mind for the moment Solona took a long while to simply think about the fact that there would be no more Templars coming after her, at least not on purpose.

There would no doubt be pursuit, for the Chantry never liked to simply let a rogue mage go, especially one that had taken out ten Templars in the course of a week and a half running through the Brecilian forest. No doubt they would cast a wide net looking for her, but unless one recognized her face or else saw her doing magic, then she had nothing to fear. This false trail leading southward would hopefully put them off her tracks for a while yet, and would they even suspect her to go back to Denerim and sit right under their noses? It was a reckless plan, she knew, but she felt like being a little reckless after playing it safe for so long. She was free to do whatever she wanted now. Absolutely and utterly free.

When Aedan got up it was to find Solona smiling vaguely and humming to herself, tending the fire and munching on some of their pilfered provisions, Keran sitting close to her side and gnawing determinedly at a strip of meat she'd provided for him. She looked up when she heard him stirring, and offered a wide smile. "Good morning."

Though glad to see that she wasn't weepy anymore, he was surprised to see her in such good spirits. Aedan sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and scratching absently at the rather pronounced stubble now covering the entirety of his jaw. 'What I wouldn't give for a good soak and a shave…' He thought with a yawn, feeling sore all over from the running and the fighting and the sleeping on awkward hilly landscapes. "You seem rather chipper this morning."

Her smile dimmed a little, but it picked back up again. "I have no reason to complain." Solona replied, taking another bite of a hard biscuit that she'd rummaged from their food stock. "I'm sorry if I startled you last night. It's just… difficult wrapping my mind around this new freedom. I'm better today."

Rolling his shoulders to alleviate some of the tenseness, Aedan nodded. "Good to hear. We should spend a few more days heading toward the mountain range before doubling back and trying to find the Imperial Highway."

Solona nodded. "It sounds good." She watched silently as he got up and grabbed a hard biscuit and a strip of meat, looking a little on the slow side as he did so. It was good to have one night of rest finally after running for so long, but it didn't alleviate all of the lingering weariness, or the kinks that came from accidentally sleeping on rocks in the night. "Aedan…" She waited until he looked up, a curious look on his face as he swallowed. "Thank you for sticking with me. I'm… I owe you a great debt for this."

A hint of a smile twitched at the corner of his lips, and he bowed his head slightly. "I promised you my aid, and that is what was given. When a Cousland makes a promise, they keep it. Loyalty is prized above all else in my family, and that is how I was taught."

Her heart ached, thinking back to the quiet rage that he had displayed when recounting the downfall of his family and for the first time began to understand the depth of the treachery that he had spoke of. In the Circle, promises were often made and seldom kept, except for any promise of pain or punishment given by Templars. Those were always followed up on in one form or another. "All the same thank you, truly."

He nodded and they elapsed into quiet relaxed silence as the morning rolled on and the forest came alive around them.


AN: Ah, but freedom is never free, now is it? The problem with Mouse continues with our intrepid duo as they stumble around in the Brecilian like a couple of n00bs. I promise a Kallian chapter next~!

PS: Do you actually get more reviews if you ask for them?