Teagan called what remained of the village together around noon, after the bodies had been gathered and pyres had been built. Most of them were unidentifiable, but a few sobbing women that could only be widows stood on the chantry steps. Leliana seemed to be trying to comfort them to no avail.

After the ceremony, Bann Teagan confessed he had known a way into the castle all along—but just as we were about to test it, Arlessa Isolde appeared with an armed guard asking Teagan and Teagan alone to come back to the castle with her.

Nalissa spoke aloud what I thought: that Isolde's story was missing a few details and that she didn't trust it to be anything but a trap. Teagan insisted on going anyway but entrusted us with his signet ring, the key to the passage into Castle Redcliffe. As we watched them run back to the castle, Leliana shook her head in disbelief.

"I cannot believe that anyone would trust her! She is clearly in league with whatever raised those things last night!"

Nalissa sighed. "Just what we need: an arlessa I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw her and a bann too worried for his brother to see reason. Today keeps getting better and better."

As it turned out, that was only going to keep happening—lucky us. After dealing with more reanimated dead men in the basement of the castle, we came across something worse still: a blood mage locked in a cell.

The man called himself Jowan and claimed to have been hired by Loghain to poison the arl. That seemed to me enough reason to me to run him through, but Nalissa hesitated. Then suddenly she pulled a pick from her belt and began to work on the lock.

"What are you doing?!" I asked, staring. "You would free him?"

Nalissa paused, but didn't look over her shoulder at me. "I have seen men die in cages," she said quietly. "The list of those I would wish it upon begins and ends with Rendon Howe."

"He should have the chance to redeem himself," Leliana agreed.

"What are you going to do with me?" Jowan asked uncertainly, and I just looked at Nalissa, curious about that myself.

"I dare say you know more about magic than I do," she said, and as the lock clicked open, she fixed Jowan with a piercing look. "You started this, blood mage. If you want to convince the arl and arlessa not to feed you to the Mabari once this is over, you'll work out a way to help."

The mage nodded and disappeared, and though I found myself questioning the wisdom of that choice, it was soon pushed out of my mind. Nalissa found the blacksmith's daughter like she had promised and told the girl to flee through the passage, and then we fought our way through the courtyard to let Ser Perth and his men in the gate. Things were just starting to look up when we made it into the main foyer and walked into one of the most disturbing scenes I had ever witnessed.

Teagan was dancing like a jester, rolling on the floor like a dog, making faces I didn't know nobles were capable of for the amusement of a red-haired little boy that could only be the arl's son. The remaining knights stood by as Isolde looked like she was about to cry and when Connor looked up at us, I understood why. The boy spoke in a low, demented voice and Teagan parroted it jovially. My blood ran cold as I realized there was something more than simple blood magic at work here; both Connor and Teagan were thralls of a demon.

Nalissa tried to talk to the boy, but Connor ran and Teagan attacked us with the knights. The bann targeted me and I held my sword at the ready, but I refused to actually strike. No matter how hard I tried to get through to him, he wouldn't come out of the trance, and then I saw Nalissa coming up behind him with her sword raised as if she was about to simply behead a hurlock.

I tried to shout for her not to do it, but all I got out was, "Don't!" right before she flipped the blade around and struck Teagan hard with the pommel.

"Don't what?" Nalissa asked in confusion as the bann crumpled at her feet with a groan.

Isolde cried Teagan's name and ran to him, and I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. "Ah, nothing," I said sheepishly, unwilling to admit that I had feared for a second she would kill the bann in cold blood.

Teagan saved me from further suspicion by returning to his senses, and then Nalissa rounded on Isolde. I had never seen her angry before, but though she remained composed, there was fire in her eyes and steel in her voice as she all but called the arlessa a liar.

"How dare you!" Isolde gasped. "Who do you think you are, to speak to me like this?!"

"Isolde," Teagan reproved gently. "This girl is Bryce Cousland's daughter and a Grey Warden, and she and Alistair and their friend are the reason anyone in the village yet lives. She is due some respect."

"Alistair!" Isolde cried, looking outraged at my presence.

"Yes. Hello, arlessa," I said quietly, suddenly feeling little more than ten years old again under her accusing gaze.

Nalissa's eyebrows arched sharply. "If you have a problem with Alistair," she said in a dangerous voice, "we can easily leave the rest of this up to you. I will not stay and fight for you if you ask him to leave."

Isolde paled and stammered an apology. I nodded in response and Nalissa's expression softened only a little. "I understand you wanted to protect your son, but you could have gotten the rest of us killed in the doing," she said, crossing her arms and looking every inch the stern but fair teyrn's daughter—fair in both senses of the word, I couldn't help thinking.

I was saved the embarrassment of being caught staring at her by the arrival of the blood mage Jowan. My stomach turned as he suggested a blood magic ritual to save Connor-at the cost of Isolde's life.

"Surely you're not considering this!" I objected, looking from Isolde to Nalissa and hoping to see reason from one of them.

Nalissa looked at me and then frowned at Jowan. "You say you only need blood for a power source. Couldn't the Circle mages perform your ritual without it?"

"They might have the lyrium to spare," Jowan admitted. "But you would have to make the journey and trust Connor to stay under control here."

"The tower docks are only on the other side of Lake Calenhad," Teagan said hopefully. "If you take Eamon's horses and hurry, and the mages agree quickly, you could be back just after nightfall."

"And there are stretches of time, when he doesn't feel threatened, where Connor is nearly himself again," Isolde piped in.

Nalissa sighed heavily and looked up, as if looking to the Maker for guidance or maybe just investigating a crack in the ceiling. Finally she fixed Teagan with a serious look. "Bann Guerrin, it's your life that will be at stake first if we leave to try this. If you're willing to take that risk, I'll go. While I might not agree with the arlessa's decisions, I won't ask her to choose between her life and her son's if there may be another option."

Teagan agreed and he and Isolde thanked Nalissa profusely. Then she, Leliana, and I headed for the gates and our impossible task of recruiting the Circle mages to help before the demon possessing Connor hurt anyone else. I decided not to point out that if my experience with the templars was any indication, that wouldn't exactly be easy.