She'd gotten up early, a rarity for her, the same time as Niall. He'd shown surprise (he was on his way to roust his apprentices from their slumber), and told her to go back to sleep, but she'd simply shrugged and said she couldn't, and given him a kiss on his way out. She waited a heart-hammering minute for him to be gone before she scooped Sloth out from under the bed, tucked him in her pocket, and strolled as quickly as possible to the shambles of her room.

She seated herself on the bed, folding her legs under her and leaning her elbows on her knees. Unwrapping the lyrium ore again, she wanted to forget that she had said she would meet Jowan later. Whatever it was couldn't be good, and she was so sick of bad news.

"Did you figure anything out?" Solona asked, the hitch in her voice being squashed down immediately. She drew out the mouse ball from her pocket. Sloth stretched sleepily.

"You're up early." His placid voice responded, completely ignoring the question. He ambled across the bed towards some crumbs she had laid out, finishing them quickly with his scissoring teeth. She'd also set out some scraps of wood to help file them down.

"I suppose it's always easy for Sloth to sleep." Lucky.

"Yes." The mouse admitted, unconcerned, around bits of food. "I could sleep now and you would never wake me. Did you come to a conclusion about the percussion?"

"…I asked you first." Sol groused sourly.

"So, no, then." The mouse sighed. "I think it has something to do with the queer sensation I have in my chest. My…heart? You mortals are born with…percussion. Two steady beats, yes? Like you can hear in the lyrium. You even described it as a heartbeat." He washed his face with his paws as he continued. "So, that is what you hear. Spirits, demons, we have no hearts. We have no definitions. Just as our shape is undefined in form, it is undefined in sensation. You are limited, and so it will take practice for you to not be limited." He paused, one ear in his tiny hands. "Does that make sense?"

Solona thought about it, somewhat in awe at the reasoning. "It…does, yes…" She frowned. "No, not really. Why can I hear it in the Fade, then?"

"I don't have every answer, Solona." The demon sniffed. "All I have is speculation. I have never been to the mortal world before this. You will have to teach the ore to sing so you can hear it."

"You want me to teach a rock to sing?" Solona felt like tearing out her hair. "How, exactly?"

"As I said before, I don't have every answer." Sloth was beginning to sound irritated with her. "You have put magic in your voice before, in the Fade, when you heard the songs of the demons. You sang for me, and you molded the song of Rage. Do it again." He said that like it was simple, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Talking is one thing, but singing like that is hard without attracting people, templars. Putting magic into song isn't normal, and they'll want to know what I'm doing. And why." Solona groaned, leaning, chin on her hands. "I don't even know why. What's this supposed to do even?"

"Make the lyrium sing. Is there a reason you cannot do something for beauty alone?" His voice sounded mocking. There was something else he wasn't saying.

"It's usually not enough for the templars. Can you imagine? 'Oh, it's just a rock singing. I swear it's not demon-possessed. How did I learn to do it? A demon taught me how, of course.'" She responded sarcastically. Lack of sleep was making her testy and snappish. "There has to be something else to this, Sloth." Solona was not good at subtlety.

"…There might be." He admitted, slowly. She narrowed her eyes.

"Sloth…"

"I said I would help you learn to make it sing. Not tell you what it does. I need something else for that." He said, expectantly. Her fists clenched.

"More bargaining?"

"I am a demon, Solona. Do you think I give things away for free?" Sloth snorted. "You have been lucky so far, and I am not greedy. I won't ask anything you cannot give. But I will think this time on what I want." He curled up into a little mouse ball, half-dozed already. "Go meet your friend, find out what he wants from you, while I decide."

Sloth then immediately dropped asleep. Solona stared at him, frustrated, then wrapped the lyrium back up in a huff, slipping it into her pocket. She picked him up as well, setting him in the other one. Wouldn't do to have his comatose form being swallowed up by an errant mouser…


Jowan paced in the hallway, twisting his hands in agitation. When Solona stepped out of her room, he rushed to her, looping his arm into hers and dragging her away. She startled at the action, completely unlike him, but followed along, customary calmness clicking into place over the surprise. He loved that she could do that; it helped him feel less jittery.

When the pair arrived in the chapel, hustled into the back where Lily waited, Solona's only response was to raise an eyebrow almost imperceptibly. As the story spilled out, however, Jowan noticed with alarming surety that she wasn't pleased with what was going on.

"We need a mage and someone with the password to help us get into the repository. It won't open for an apprentice who hasn't been through the Harrowing." Jowan concluded, voice dying at the end. Solona was frowning heavier than he'd ever seen.

"You know what you're asking, right? I was just hit with a smite not even a week ago, and I can't be made tranquil. If they catch me, they'll probably throw me into solitary for a year, at least." Solona hissed, frustrated. "And I can't escape with you, either. My phylactery is gone."

"You can evade them, though. You're clever." Lily tried. Jowan winced. She didn't know Solona at all, if that's what she thought. The soft, sedentary mage lifestyle suited her far better.

"I haven't been outside the Tower since I was very little, Lily. And going with you would defeat the purpose of destroying Jowan's phylactery in the first place." Solona grimaced, all sorts of unpleasant chase-scene imagery flashing through her mind. "And them-in-charge thinking Jowan is a blood mage means if I was caught outside the Tower with the two of you, they would accuse me of the same. They're already worried about my weird sleeping bouts, and what happened with Cullen, and…Jowan, I can't."

"You don't understand!" Jowan couldn't believe it. She was refusing to help him! "They're going to make me tranquil. Like Owain. Like they're going to do to Neria." He saw her flinch, then, and seized on his chance. "If I don't destroy my phylactery, they'll hunt to kill, not just bring me back like Anders because he's such a good healer. And if I don't leave, they'll extinguish my humanity, on a rumor."


Solona felt like a coward. The stakes were so high for her, though. A demon mouse in her pocket, contraband lyrium ore in the other, strange, extended, unexplainable sleeping patterns, being involved in an attempted murder of a templar…if she compounded it with aiding the escape of a convicted blood mage (and an initiate), she was doomed. Greagoir would stop believing she had tried to save Cullen, and it would be turned against her in a heartbeat. Solitary confinement would be too lenient.

"Jowan…" She started. His pleading look was cracking her resistance.

"Please, Sol. I need help." Jowan's voice was wavering, and his eyes were wet. He was terrified. Her resolve melted.

"…You just need a mage's mana dispelled on the first door, right?" She groaned out. Jowan nodded emphatically.

"And a fire rod to melt the lock on—" Lily continued. Solona cut her off with an impatient scoff.

"Jowan can use fire. He's much better at it than I am, even, and far better than a rod." The initiate frowned, uncomfortable. Did she not trust her un-Harrowed boyfriend's magic? Solona did not like her at all.

"That's all we need, yes." Jowan was calmer, though he was still fidgety. "You'll help us, then?"

"You know I can't be implicated in this, Jowan." Her friend may have been terrified, but she was scared, too. She had a lot at stake as well.

After concentrating for a moment, she held a clasped palm out in front of her. The insides of her fist began to glow, and she opened it to reveal a heavily charged spell wisp, floating in lazy, magic-saturated circles. "Use this. It has…a good portion of my mana." She transferred it to his hands, trying not to let her limbs shake. Whether it would be from the fear or the act of draining over half her mana into such a small form was unclear. "Just discharge it against that door."

Jowan cupped the wisp reverently in both hands, holding it to his chest, where it let out a soft light between his fingers. "Thank you, Sol. I…" He paused, "…we won't forget this." He amended, glancing at his nervous paramour. "Let's go, Lily."

"Maker watch over you." Lily murmured to Sol. The mage got the distinct impression Lily felt put out that the mage wasn't coming along. Solona's instincts were probably right; she didn't trust Jowan to see them through this. It would have irked her more if she hadn't been told that it was Lily who had brought Jowan the news. She trusted him not to believe he was a blood mage, and maybe that was good enough.

"And you. Take care of him." Solona murmured. Jowan was a good person. He didn't deserve to be made tranquil on a rumor. She couldn't even imagine the timid apprentice having the fortitude to stick himself with a needle, let alone draw the blood needed for maleficarum.

She watched them go, feeling the weight of her contraband in her pockets, a testament to mages who did stupid, uncharacteristic things for the best and worst of reasons.


All right, sorry this took so long, and it's kinda short. Hit kind of a snag in my ability to write. Thank you for everyone being so patient and all your favorites, alerts and reviews. They keep me going! I try to reply to everyone, so I'm sorry if I missed you.

About last chapter: my interpretation of Cullen is that he's prone to a big imagination, and doesn't always take into account realities. He's also had a lot of time alone to fantasize about the mage who saved his life. Building on a past infatuation and realizing he may have dismissed Solona as boring too quickly was what spurred him to redevelop his crush. It definitely isn't rational! I tried to convey that a little, but I'm sorry if it didn't come out right.

If you're interested in seeing what Solona looks like, I did a rough sketch of her on my devART. Just remove the spaces from this URL and you can see: http :/ /fav. me /d3aexvc