Cullen hid a wide, jaw-cracking yawn behind the latest stock-take from Haven. He was running drills with the newest recruits while simultaneously trying to read about their food reserves and work on the guard rotations in Haven. It certainly wouldn't reflect well on The Inquisition to have their Commander seen yawning through basic training.

The food rations would need to be altered to take into account the new guards and soldiers that Cullen had stationed in the valley. While he was almost sure The Believers wouldn't appear in Haven again, he was taking no chances. They'd tripled the guard and changed shift patterns to allow for an overlap. Of course, they couldn't account for everything, but Haven was now as well protected as he could make it,

"That's a shield you're holding," he barked at one of the recruits over his report, making the recruit almost drop said shield as he jumped and tried to raise his shield and salute Cullen all at the same time, "It will do you no good if you're holding it by your waist. Block, don't hide. Again."

The recruits opponent repeated the attack pattern, the swings of his practice sword were blocked competently by the jumpy recruit before he followed up with the counter-attack Cullen had shown them earlier. Cullen nodded his approval before returning most of his attention to the folders in his hands.

Luckily, the negative feeling toward The Inquisition that Ellana had reported in The Hinterlands seemed to have little-to-no effect on the number of recruits they were receiving. It still seemed that every day new people arrived, willing to pledge themselves to their cause. Probably a good thing, Cullen thought wryly, Skyhold was thin on the ground for soldiers lately. So many had been sent to the far corners of Ferelden and Orlais so they'd have a fast response time to any news of The Believers.

He was just about to make some corrections — really? Only twelve casks of ale? Clearly, the writer of this report hadn't seen how much their guards could drink in their free time — when his attention was once again pulled away from his reports, though this time it was by one of Leliana's messengers instead of a recruit. She appeared at his elbow, brown eyes looked up at him enquiringly from under her hood,

"Commander Cullen," she greeted him with a small bow, "Sister Nightingale requests your presence in the War Room."

Out of the corner of his eye, Cullen spotted another messenger in a similar uniform hurrying up the steps to the mage tower; going for Ellana, he suspected. If Leliana thought it necessary to pull them both from their afternoon duties then something serious must be happening. He closed the folders with a snap, resigned to the fact that his paperwork would once again be taking a back seat in order of importance, and returned the messengers bow,

"Tell Sister Nightingale that I'll be right there." The messenger saluted sharply and was off the moment Cullen finished speaking.

A few moments later and Cullen had left one of his lieutenants in charge of the drills and was heading into the Great Hall, his stack of folders tucked uncomfortably under one arm.

Ellana caught him up just as he was passing through the double doors, wordlessly taking half his burden into her unencumbered arms,

"Fenedhis, what do you think happened now?"

"No idea." He glanced to his side, her eyes were narrowed, new dark smudges he hadn't seen since their long battle against Corypheus were underneath them, and she was chewing on her bottom lip, "Maybe the dwarves are in revolt, marching on the surface with a plan to rule us all." he said, her expression cleared as a reluctant grin spread across her face, Cullen considered it a victory,

"Perhaps you're right, and soon we'll see nugs swarming the landscape, laying waste to the crops."

"No, not the nugs. Give me plagues, famine, anything but nugs!" Cullen groaned dramatically. Several of the nobles that seemed to never leave the Great Hall turned to give them some very strange looks, but Cullen didn't care, Ellana sudden peal of surprised laughter was well worth it.

"If this does turn out to be the dwarves, then I am totally blaming you." she said, as she poked him in the shoulder.

Cullen was chuckling lightly as he held the door open to Josephine's empty office.

Their laughter soon came to an end when they entered the War Room to find Leliana and Josephine already waiting for them. Both women were hunched over the ever-present map, backlit from the sun pouring through the large window behind them. They were studying the markers, both wearing very serious expressions,

"Good, you're both here." Leliana said, Ellana caught his eye for a moment, straight to business then, the look seemed to say, before they both approached the table and took their places, "A group of lookouts I had placed watching over Sulchers Pass have fallen silent," Leliana frowned, part irritation, part worry if Cullen had to guess, "It's not like them. I'm concerned something has happened to them, or someone is interfering with our communication."

"How often were you expecting to hear from them?" he asked, his eyes swept over the map, reminding himself of where his own markers were placed.

"If all's well, they were to report every twelve hours."

"Every twelve hours seems excessive," Ellana said, frowning herself as she picked up a spare map marker and flipped it between her palms; her hands busy as her mind focused on the problem, "Could they have lost track of time? Or forgotten?"

"No, it's been too long," Leliana answered with a shake of her head, "These agents are in charge of other scouts in the region, they're some of my best. They wouldn't just forget."

"I think we can rule out nugs." Ellana muttered to him out of the corner of her mouth, "Where, exactly, were they stationed?" she asked the room at large, leaning further over the map,

"This ridge." Leliana ran a finger down a mountain chain, "It gives the best view of the pass."

"Isn't there someone nearby we can send to go check on them?" Josephine asked,

"The majority of my men are posted on the wrong side of the mountain," Cullen said, indicating his markers, "It would take them too long to go around."

"And the ones on the right side of the mountain?"

"Protecting settlements." Cullen sighed, straightening and rubbing the back of his neck, "Sending them would require leaving either The Cross Roads or Redcliffe Village unprotected. We can ill afford another attack."

"Agreed. Those soldiers need to stay where they are." Ellana said with a decisive nod, "There's no one else?"

Cullen scanned the markers once more before shaking his head. While they had plenty of new recruits, they were too raw to send into the field unsupervised, and the fully trained soldiers were spread too thin to send after missing scouts.

"So, what are we going to do?" Josephine asked, tapping her pen distractingly against her clipboard. Cullen could see only one solution, and it seemed he wasn't the only one; he could almost feel the weight of Ellana's gaze on the side of his head. His eyes raked over the markers again, hoping another solution would jump out at him, none did.

"Cullen?" she urged quietly. He glanced up, Leliana and Josephine were engrossed in their own conversation, debating the pros and cons of asking the local nobles for help. He knew full well that Ellana had come to the same conclusion that he had,

"Krem?" he murmured, inclining his head in agreement to her unasked question.

He'd rather have kept her close; the incident in Haven had shaken them both. These were, however, their people. Their disappearance needed to be investigated, either to find the scouts or to discover what had happened to them. Also, Leliana was right, they couldn't afford to leave Sulchers Pass unguarded. Still, if he wasn't already struggling with his workload then he'd have gone with her himself. She was more than capable of defending herself, he knew that, it was more to put his own mind at ease.

"Plus Bull and Blackwall." she nodded, "We can take a few of The Chargers too, if the scouts really have disappeared then The Chargers can stay and guard the pass until we find out what happened."

She placed the marker she was still tossing from palm to palm on the table and trailed a finger along a path, Cullen frowned and shook his head, pointing out a more direct route she'd missed. She nodded silently, he held up two fingers and looked at her seriously, and she nodded again in understanding. If she wasn't back in two days and hadn't sent a missive, he was coming after her.

Sulchers pass wasn't far. The weather had been fine, and Ellana's party had excellent visibility. They hadn't even come across a single disaster on their way down, not even minor ones, it was almost a miracle by their standard. They'd easily found the spot the scouts should have been manning; it was exactly where Leliana had said it would be.

Ellana should have known right then that something was going to go disastrously wrong. Nothing was ever this easy.

The scout's camp was set on the edge of a high ridge with a perfect view over the valley, it was sheltered by a crop of trees that kept the occasional harsh mountain winds at bay. The spot was beautiful, idyllic, except for the fact that it was completely abandoned.

Ellana walked slowly through the camp. Her gaze swept the ground in front of her, looking for something that they'd missed. The imprint of a boot that didn't belong, a track in the mud from something being dragged along the ground, something, anything. She came up empty.

The others were picking through the scout's belongings, looking for clues or some sign of where they might have gone,

"I can't understand it," Blackwall said as he pulled his shaggy head out of one of the tents, "Everything is still here; cooking implements, sleeping bags, don't even look like they've been disturbed."

"But the fire's been dead for hours, maybe days," Krem interjected. He poked at the charred bits of wood that were left, "See? Not even an ember."

"It looks as though they just woke up one morning and started walking," Ellana said, hands on hips as she turned in a slow circle, "There should be seven of our people here. We didn't pass anyone on our way down here, so where do you suppose they -"

"Er, Boss?" Bull interrupted, he was standing on the ridge and looking out over the valley, "You're gonna want to come look at this."

"Is it the scouts?" Ellana asked as she picked her way through the campsite, trying her best not to disturb anything but somehow spilling half the cooking pots into the burned out firepit anyway,

"Not exactly." Bull answered.

Ellana moved up to stand next to him and groaned. There was smoke rising in a plume from the valley,

"Mythal's mercy, there's a settlement there. Let's move."

Village number five.

It had been a very small settlement — thank The Creators for small mercies — barely a handful of homes. Regardless of how small it had been, it had been all these people had. And now? It was gone.

Despite rushing down the mountain at break-neck speed, The Believers were still long gone by the time Ellana and the others reached the wreckage.

They dismounted just inside the boundary of the village and picked their way carefully through the destruction. Blackwall was muttering curses to himself but the others didn't speak as they looked around and saw for themselves first-hand what The Believers were capable of. Everything was destroyed, every building, every barn, right down to the wagons. The people that lived here had tried to save what they could by carrying water from a nearby stream, they hadn't been able to salvage anything significant. The smell of the damp, charred wood swirled around them on the breeze, sickeningly sweet and hanging in the air.

By rights, it should be raining, Ellana thought, the sunshine that refused to stop shining down on them was almost an insult.

Her stomach dropped and swooped inside her when she spotted the funeral pyre; it was still smouldering under a sheet that someone had thrown over it, the fabric had singed in a few places and had begun to turn black. It was a wonder that hadn't caught fire too.

Ellana had never seen a funeral pyre before joining The Inquisition, the first she'd seen had been after Corypheus had devastated Haven. The Dalish respected death as a natural part of life, their burial rites saw their brother's and sister's earthly bodies buried in the earth, that was where their mortal journey ended when Falon'Din saw them into the Beyond. A tree was customarily planted on the site, it symbolised the Dalish belief that death was a part of life, that death was, indeed, necessary for new life to flourish.

This? There was nothing natural or necessary about this. These deaths couldn't be respected as a part of life, this was life taken. Stolen. Destroyed.

The smell of the damp wood had overpowered the stench of burning flesh. Regardless, her stomach still rolled, and she stumbled, Bull had to throw out an arm to steady her. She didn't have the voice to thank him, and he didn't seem to expect it, but he took a small step closer to her side as she walked. Whether it was to silently comfort her, block the sight of the pyre or just to prevent her from stumbling again, she didn't know. Maybe it was all three. She was grateful whatever the answer was.

As they reached the centre of the village they found the small knot of survivors grouped together. A cowardly part of her wanted nothing more than to run away, to not see their grief or heartache. She squashed the impulse in disgust, and forced herself to look them in the eye as she approached.

A few children peeked at her from behind the legs of family members, their eyes huge and wary. Something in her chest twisted painfully. So young to have witnessed such devastation. The adults they were hiding behind weren't fairing much better. Some wept, others simply looked too shocked to deal with what had suddenly happened around them.

Ellana made her way to the person closest to her; a young woman around her own age. The young woman's hands were wrapped tightly around the shoulders of a small boy. The woman's eyes were too round and filled with tears. Ellana tried to make herself look as non-threatening as possible, holding her palms out and walking slowly,

"We're The Inquisition," she said gently, her voice barely over a whisper, "We're here to help you." The woman nodded mutely, Ellana was fairly sure she hadn't heard a word,

"You're The Inquisitor?" said a small voice, Ellana looked down, the little boy was looking up at her, tear tracks ran through the soot that had half covered his face,

"You're a smart boy. My name is Ellana, what's yours?" Ellana asked, hunkering down onto her haunches, so she was looking up at him instead of the other way around,

"I'm Evan. Are you an elf?"

"That's right, da'len. The ears gave me away, didn't they?" Ellana said, trying a small smile and feeling immeasurably grateful for the one Evan gave her in return, "Well Evan, I want to help you. Is this your mum?"

Evan nodded in response, "If you're The Inquisitor, does that mean you're going to find the bad people? They killed my grandfather."

"Yes, da'len. But first I'm going to take care of you, your mum and all these other people. Do you see those people over there?" Ellana pointed to the few members of The Bulls Chargers that were hovering at the entrance to the village, "Those are The Chargers, they're the good guys, and they're here to look after you. Do you think you could take your mum over to them?"

Evan nodded, prying one of his mother's hands from his shoulders. Ellana watched as the too-small boy led his mother over to the troops,

"Brave boy." Krem muttered from behind her,

"He's a child, he shouldn't need to be brave." Ellana replied on a sigh before getting to her feet and turning to face her friends, "Spread out, and help those you can. We'll take any that want to come back to Haven."

Ellana spent the next few hours quietly moving through the survivors of the attack. Listening to those that wanted, or needed, to talk, finding people to help the ones that seemed too shook up to look after themselves just yet and, once or twice, just holding someone's hand as they cried. More than a few of them were grateful, Ellana wished they weren't. She'd thought the angry outburst she had received at The Cross Roads was bad, but this was so much worse. Every time someone thanked her, it felt as though a knife buried in her chest was being twisted painfully.

Finally, all the refugees were on the road to Haven with The Chargers. Bull, Blackwall and Krem approached her, they were covered in soot from sifting through peoples belongings, trying to salvage things for the refugees to take with them,

"There's a note here somewhere," she said, "We can't leave until we find it."

With painstaking slowness they picked through the skeletal remains of the buildings.

It was Ellana that found it first, and when she did she thanked the Gods that it had been her and not one of the others. At first glance it appeared the same as the rest of the notes they'd found, but this one had an addendum at the bottom. It was co-ordinates, she realised, along with a date, time and the words 'come alone' underlined. Anger with an undeniable tinge of guilt curled in the pit of her stomach. She stared so long at the words that they began to blur.

Was this intentional? Had The Believers known they'd be here? That they would witness this newest act of destruction themselves? Had they done something to the scouts to ensure she'd be here personally?

It was possible. Indeed, it seemed almost prophetical that the first time they received a note with an actual place for her to hand herself over to them that she would be the one to find it. If this village was specifically targeted because she just happened to be nearby... then the fear in the people's eyes, every tear she'd wiped away, that was because of her.

The note crumpled in her fist. Anger burned in the back of her throat, her hands trembled with it, small branches of lightning sparked at her fingertips. Balling her fists tighter she fought for control of her temper. Breathing through her nose until she felt in control.

If The Believers were targeting places in her vicinity then she needed to leave the area immediately. Dusting her hands off on her leathers she tucked the note into her pocket. They needed to return to Skyhold, and she needed to prepare to head to the meeting place The Believers had chosen. Cullen wasn't going to be happy, she thought with a wince, but what choice did they have?

She rehearsed the conversation she would have with Cullen multiple times on the trip back to Skyhold. They'd split The Bulls Chargers up, leaving some to take the place of the still-missing scouts, and some to escort the refugees to Haven. Ellana pushed the rest of her small party hard, not daring to stay in the same place for a moment longer than was strictly necessary to let their mounts rest. She hadn't told the others about the new information on the latest note, she owed it to Cullen to discuss it with him first. She was sure they knew something about the latest village was troubling her, besides the obvious of course, Bull especially kept sending meaningful looks in her direction, but she kept them at such a pace that he never got chance to ask. They reached Skyhold in record time.

Cullen was in the training yard with some recruits and had his back to them when they rode through the main gates. He turned to face them and caught her eye, she saw his expression shift; he always could read her perfectly. If expression she'd been wearing was enough to make Bull wary, then to Cullen it would be as though she'd rode into Skyhold waving a flag.

"Bull?" she asked, catching the qunari's large arm as he came up beside her, "Can you grab everyone for a meeting?"

"Sure thing, Boss. Do you want your usual bringing up?"

"Not The Den." she said quickly, realising she wanted room to pace. They could barely swing a dead nug in The Den, let alone give her space to work off her useless energy, "Can you and Varric find some bullshit excuse to clear everyone out of the Gain Hall?"

"No problem. Varric's the king of bullshit excuses."

"Thanks. I won't be long."

"Hmm," Bull mused, catching her stormy expression before looking over to see Cullen marching toward them, "Look Boss, you're pissed, I get that, but take it easy on Cullen, alright? He worries about you, he's not the only one." Before she could respond he'd moved away, heading for the stables with Krem, and Cullen was frowning up at her,

"What happened? Where are the scouts?"

"We didn't find them. There's more, we need to talk."