Nathaniel knelt down beside the open pit, his handkerchief covering his nose and mouth as he carefully studied the ground, looking for any clue as to who or what may be responsible for the gruesome scene before him. He tried very hard to focus on the task at hand, but his eyes were continuously drawn to the pit filled with bodies strewn carelessly on top of one another and left to rot in the open air. Never in all his travels and experiences in warfare had he ever encountered a scene such as disgusting as this. The bodies of traders, travelers, elves, and bandits lay mingled together in a mass grave, hidden away in the back corner of the woods. Shaking his head, Nathaniel stood up and looked around for his companions. Anders was standing a good distance away, looking rather pale and trying very hard not to stare at the scene in front of them. Nathaniel felt for them man; for all that he had been through in his numerous escape attempts, nothing could have ever prepared him for the harsh realities of life as a Grey Warden. But Nathaniel had to admit, he was impressed with the man's fortitude; he seemed to be handling all this with a good deal of courage even though it was clear that scenes like this were obviously hard for him to handle. Perhaps there was hope for him yet.

Eriana and Oghren, on the other hand, seemed to have no issue with the grisly scene as they were standing right beside it, engaged in a very heated discussion.

"But Ana, darkspawn just don't do this. They eat their victims or leave them to rot; the most I've ever seen them do is string them up. Dragging bodies all the way out here to dispose of them in a secluded place just doesn't fit; I've never seen them do anything like this before. I'm tellin ya, it's not darkspawn."

Eriana threw her hands up, "Then what else is it? All the evidence I've seen here so far points to darkspawn; I haven't even seen a trace of anything else around here. Besides, we've never seen a talking darkspawn before now, and we've never seen darkspawn who took prisoners either. I'm telling you, things have changed; we can't base our assumptions on what we know from the past."

"And I'm tellin ya, it's something else; something we're missing. This goes against the very nature of darkspawn, talkin or not."

Eriana sighed, "Nathaniel what do you think?" she asked him as he walked up to them. "Do you see any evidence that it might be something else?"

Nathaniel shook his head. "There are darkspawn tracks all over this area, and I'm not finding any evidence of anything else. Now, I don't profess to be an expert at darkspawn behavior, that's your area of expertise, but everything I see points to them."

"The darkspawn could just be attracted by the smell of decay," Oghren argued. "Whoever put the bodies here may have been better at covering their tracks."

"Excuse me," Anders shouted from a distance. "Not to sound like a wimp or anything, but do you think we could continue this discussion away from the disgusting smelly pit of rotting flesh. The smell of decay is so hard to get out of robes and hair."

Eriana chuckled slightly as the three of them made their way up to the blonde mage. "Okay, so if it isn't darkspawn, what are the other possibilities?"

"Bandits?" Oghren suggested. "They may be moving the bodies out of the way so that they don't scare off the next potential victims."

Nathaniel shook his head, "Why go through the trouble of dragging them all the way down here? If they wanted to hide the bodies, wouldn't they just drag them off in the woods, just out of sight and smell of the main roadways? Dragging them all the way down here seems like way too much work."

"And bandits are anything but hardworking," Eriana added. "You're right, there's no way bandits would go through this kind of trouble, especially considering that they usually just leave the bodies and over-turned carts in the middle of the road after they've taken everything of value. Something that requires this much work would leave them susceptible to being caught too; I don't think they'd risk staying in one place for this long."

"What about political motivation?" Nathaniel suggested. "Your enemies in the arling could be attacking traders hoping to bankrupt you by scaring other traders away."

"That's a thought," Eriana said, "but why would they hide the bodies? Wouldn't they just leave them as a warning, hoping to scare away others?"

"True," Nathaniel said with a sigh. "It would be better for them to leave the bodies out in the open."

"Could it be the Dalish?" Oghren offered. "After all, we did see that crazy one who threatened to kill us then sent those trees after us; she said that she was attacking the humans for taking her sister. Maybe there's more who were attacking the caravans who were passing through the area."

"That's just one crazy elf, though. And it still doesn't explain the mass grave; besides the Dalish aren't exactly warriors, it's why they live the way they do. And why would they attack traders anyway? The Dalish rely on trade with humans to survive; they wouldn't jeopardize that with something as horrid as this," Eriana said throwing her arms up. "None of this makes any sense," she growled in frustration.

The four of them continued to walk quietly through the woods all of them deep in thought.

"Templars!" Anders finally said, breaking the uneasy silence. "That, my friends, was the work of a group of templars. Those were bodies of dead apostates all coming to Amaranthine looking for help, and the templars killed them and disposed of them." The other three Wardens turned and stared at him. "What? It's just a thought. All the logical answers were already given," he said with a grin.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes at the mage but chose not to say anything since Eriana was giggling beside him. "Why didn't I think of that? Of course it's the templars. We've stumbled upon a huge Chantry secret here; little did we know that Amaranthine was a hot spot for apostate activities and the templars are on the verge of putting a stop to it." She sighed and looked up at the trees. "I just can't help but think we're missing some important detail here. I know there's a logical explanation for all this."

"Don't worry," Ander's assured her, "We are four reasonably smart people here; we'll figure this out."

The party continued to make their way through the woods, encountering very few darkspawn on the way. Nathaniel could tell that Eriana was beginning to grow more and more frustrated as it seemed they were no nearer finding any answers, only more questions. They finally made their way up to the cliff where they had first spotted the angry Dalish mage, only to find an abandoned camp littered with discarded weapons and armor.

Oghren shook his head, "It looks like there's been an attack here. See, look at all this blood, but there are no bodies."

"And I'm no warrior," Anders added, "but I'm pretty sure most fighters don't just leave their weapons lying about like this. It's almost like they've been planted here."

"Something stinks here, Ana, and for once it isn't me," Oghren said.

Nathaniel knelt down and examined the ground around the weapons. "There's been too much traffic around here to determine who did this, but someone was definitely trying to frame the merchants for the attacks on the Dalish."

"But why," Eriana asked in frustration. "What would anyone gain from this?" She turned to Nathaniel, "Do you think this and the pit are connected?"

"If I had to wager a guess, I'd say yes. Whoever did this attacked the elves, killed the merchants, dumped the bodies, then planted these weapons to turn the elves against any future merchants," Nathaniel said as they moved away from the abandoned camp. "I just wish I knew who."

It didn't take them long to find out who was behind it all. After leaving the Dalish camp, the Wardens found a dying mercenary who was obviously suffering from a severe case of Blight disease. In his dying breaths, he explained that he and his party were ambushed by darkspawn who then planted their weapons for the Dalish to find, confirming what they already suspected. The Wardens listened with growing horror as the man finished his story. As he was talking, Nathaniel noticed Eriana's hands travel to her weapons as her cautious eyes began to scan the tree line. Nathaniel followed her lead, knocking an arrow and carefully watching the edge of the wood as a group of darkspawn emerged and attacked.

Once all the creatures were dead, Oghren turned to Eriana. "I suppose you were right kiddo. It seems the darkspawn were behind this whole thing. I guess that answers our questions."

"No it doesn't, not really," Eriana said as she sat down, holding her head in her hands. "Do you realize what this means?" she said with a groan. "The darkspawn are sentient, at least some of them are. They're making plans, pinning elves and humans against each other. But why? What could they possibly gain through all this? If they're intelligent enough to formulate and carry out a scheme as manipulative as this, they would have to have some kind of motivation behind it, something that they're hoping to gain through it all. But what? What are we missing?"

"I don't know," Anders said. "But we have got to get to that elf and explain things to her, make her see the error of her ways. She's killed so many innocent people; maybe we can stop her before any others have to die."

Eriana groaned and rolled her eyes before getting up. "Great, there's nothing I enjoy more than spending time with the Dalish; this should be loads of fun," she muttered under her breath. Nathaniel was surprised by her reluctance. Shouldn't she get along well with the Dalish; after all, she was an elf herself, so shouldn't that make things easier? He knew the Dalish were wary of humans, but Eriana was an elf so she didn't have to worry about that.

As it turns out, Eriana was right; dealing with the Dalish woman was no fun at all. First she attacked, summoning more trees to attack them, and then she refused to listen to reason, insisting that Eriana was lying to protect the humans. After a long conversation, the elven mage finally relented, agreeing to see the logic in Eriana's arguments.

"So are you saying the darkspawn took my sister," the Dalish woman, Velanna she called herself, asked, "but why? What could they possibly want with her?"

Nathaniel saw Eriana tense up for a moment before she answered. "There's no telling. We're dealing with a race a darkspawn I've never encountered before, but when we do find out, I will let you know." She looked like she wanted to say more, but stopped herself. There was something that she wasn't telling them. "I'd say our best bet would be those mines we passed back there," she said, turning back to the Wardens. "I say we start there."

"Well, I'm going with you," Velanna said, stepping forward. "It's my sister down there, and I'm not going to leave her fate to you strangers."

Eriana rolled her eyes, "Fine, you can come, but while you are with us, you will do what I tell you, no matter what."

Velanna's eyes narrowed, "I'm not taking orders from some flat-eared shem lover."

Eriana's jaw clenched as she stared back at the defiant elf. Nathaniel could tell she was fighting back the urge to just kill the woman and be done with it, but instead of slicing her throat, Eriana calmly stepped forward, pulling a small vial out of her pack. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, holding the vial up for Velanna to see. The elf shook her head. "This is a Mage Bane poison." Behind him, Nathaniel heard Anders hiss quietly. "Now, if I threw this at your feet, merely inhaling it would drain most of your mana, leaving you mostly defenseless. If I put it on my dagger and cut you with it, it would completely block all your magic until the poison leaves your system, and that could take days. I don't really know how long it incapacitates mages, I've never let them live quite long enough to find out," she said with a casual shrug. "Now, you either agree to follow my directions or I make sure you can't follow us and cause more trouble for me. Trust me, you don't want to be running around down there on your own, and we know darkspawn well enough to keep you safe while we look for your sister, but only if I'm not worrying about keeping you out of danger. Got it?

Velanna nodded. "Good," Eriana said. "I'm glad we see eye to eye. And if you ever call me flat-eared again, you won't be getting the courtesy of a warning before I take out your mana," Eriana spat at the other elf as she brushed past her. Nathaniel had never seen this side of Eriana before, so he hurried up to her side to see if she was alright.

"Yeah," she said in a bit of a huff. "I just get so tired of the superiority complex of my Dalish brethren," she said, spitting out the word with disgust. "I've yet to meet one who doesn't initially look down on me because I didn't have the privilege of growing up pissing in the woods. Like I had a choice of being born in an Alienage, bloody hypocrites. They chide us for living with humans, yet reject us in the next breath. Even if a city born elf wanted to run away and join a Dalish clan, they wouldn't allow it for fear it would pollute their precious pure blood."

"I had no idea," Nathaniel said. "Are all the Dalish like that?"

"Well, I've not encountered that many, they tend to be a bit reclusive. The clan that allied with me during the Blight warmed up to me a bit after a while; in fact, a few actually volunteered to join the Wardens. But for the most part, yeah, they all have a tendency to look down on those us who allow ourselves to be, as they see it, used by humans." She nodded back to Velanna who was following silently behind them. "She probably thinks I'm screwing all of you, since they always assume female city elves are all whores."

Nathaniel heard the elf behind them give a huff of frustration, but didn't say anything in response. "You don't want to set her strait?"

"Nah, she'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully we'll find her sister, and she can go on her merry way," Eriana said as they Oghren pried the door to the mines open and they began to make their way down into the mines. Nathaniel carefully nocked an arrow as searched the shadows as they quietly descended into the darkness. They made their way down a set or rickety stairs that precariously wound down to the cave floor. Eriana motioned for them to spread out and explore the small room. "Anders, stay close to Velanna; weapons out, Wardens."

"Do you sense something, Ana?" Oghren whispered.

"Yeah, there are definitely darkspawn down here, and something…" she stopped dead, her eyes wide. "Maker's Breath," Eriana gasped, turning toward Nathaniel. "It's a trap; all this, the pit, the weapons, the Dalish camp, it's all a trap."

"For who?"

"Us." She said an air of panic creeping into her voice, her eyes scanning the darkness. "The darkspawn did all this because they knew we would eventually have to come and investigate it. They took Wardens from the keep for some reason, and now they're after us. We have to get out of here, now!" Nathaniel nodded in agreement and moved quickly back to the steps where the others were standing, only to turn back when he heard Eriana's sudden cry.

Her eyes were wide with panic, "I can't move; I'm stuck in some kind of glyph." She looked up at them, "Go!" she shouted as Nathaniel took a step toward her, "Don't worry about me; just get out of here. Save yourself; just get out of here."

"Like hell!" Nathaniel said, running toward her. "We're not leaving you here alone. Anders, can you dispel this magic somehow?"

Anders didn't get a chance to answer. Just then a strange darkspawn emissary and a corrupted dwarf stepped into view just above them. Before Nathaniel could raise his bow to fire on the creature, it raised its hand to cast a spell on them. Beside him, Eriana began to sway and started to fall. Nathaniel moved quickly to catch her before she hit the ground, but as he tried to pull her up, he too began to feel the effects of the spell wash over him. The last thing he saw before his world went black was Eriana's face.


Nathaniel did not like waking up in unfamiliar clothes, and he didn't like waking up in unfamiliar places either. That fact that both were happing to him at the same time was really unnerving to him. He had awoken to find himself in a cage with an unconscious Anders and Oghren, and a very conscious and very annoyed Velanna, who had been pacing a rut in the cave floor. Since awaking, he tried very hard to focus his mental efforts on formulating some kind of plan, but he couldn't help imagining the darkspawn pawing over him and his armor while he was unconscious. Beside him, Velanna huffed in annoyance.

"Would you please do something? You are a Grey Warden; are you not?"

Nathaniel rolled his eyes, "Yes, and this is definitely one of the skills that Grey Wardens have, the ability to simply walk through walls with no trouble at all. Besides, we're not going anywhere until these two have woken up," he said, gesturing to the sleeping Wardens beside him. "How long was I out anyway?"

Velanna shrugged, "I don't know. I was alone in here for a while when they brought you in. A few minutes later, a bunch of those big, ugly ones drug those two in. You probably woke up about ten minutes later."

As she was talking, Oghren and Anders began to stir. Looking around, the dwarf groaned in frustration, "Ah, sod it, bloody darkspawn; they've got my stuff."

"And the Commander," Anders pointed out as he sat up.

"Great," Velanna said, "now that you're all awake; we can get out of here."

Oghren's eyes narrowed into a murderous glare. "Not without the commander." He stood up and began to walk around the cell, inspecting the bars, shaking them as if he was looking for weaknesses. "Howe," he said with a sudden authoritative air about him, "can you pick that lock?"

Nathaniel moved to inspect the door. He shook his head, "If I had some lock picks maybe, but all my tools are in my armor, which is, unfortunately, in darkspawn hands right now."

"Anders, how about you? Can you blast us out of here?"

Anders held out his hands and closed his eyes in concentration. "No," he groaned in frustration, "there's something in here that's blocking my magic. Perhaps…"

"Be quiet," Velanna hissed at them, "they're coming."

Just then the door on the far end of the room swung open, and the strange emissary strolled in, followed by a small troop of darkspawn, one of with was cradling Eriana's unconscious form in its arms. Rage began to swell in Nathaniel the moment he saw is elven companion looking so fragile and helpless in that thing's arms. The creature snarled at him as it dumped the elven woman unceremoniously onto the floor. Nathaniel tried to move toward her, toward it, but he was paralyzed, nailed to the floor by some spell the emissary had cast on them. Beside him, he could tell Oghren and Anders were doing the same.

"She is fine," the emissary said in a deep, meditative voice. "She will awake shortly from her slumber." The way the strange creature looked at them before it turned to leave sent chills through Nathaniel, but the moment it was gone, Nathaniel found that he was able to move again. He turned toward Eriana, but Anders was already there, cradling the sleeping elf's head in his lap as he examined her for injuries.

"Well?" Oghren said nervously, "Is she alright?"

"I think so; it's hard to tell what's wrong with her without my magic. Her pulse is normal, and she isn't running a fever."

"She looks pale," Nathaniel pointed out.

Anders looked up at him, "She's looked pale for the past week." Anders looked back down at the elf, stroking her face and forehead in a tender, almost loving way.

"Check her hair," Oghren said. "She always carries lock picks in there just in case something like this happens to her."

Anders ran his hands through her hair and pulled out several metal picks. He handed them to Nathaniel before turning his attention back to the sleeping elf. Nathaniel turned his attention to the door. It was a big, bulky lock, and the picks Eriana were able to hide in her hair were just too flimsy to manipulate the heavy mechanisms. After breaking the first two, Nathaniel decided to wait until the elf awoke to attempt with the final pick since she was much better at picking locks than he was.

As it turned out, they didn't need the final lockpick after all. Just after Eriana awoke, Velanna's sister came stealing into the room, delivering them the key and their freedom before disappearing into the shadows, much to the Dalish elf's dismay.

"Okay, guys," Eriana whispered as they made their way out of their temporary prison, "there is a group of darkspawn headed this way. Anders and Velanna, you are the only ones armed now, so use your magic wisely. Everyone else, get whatever weapons you can and use them." She was about to say more when the door burst and a small group of darkspawn stormed onto the room. Nathaniel disappeared into the shadows and began to move behind them, keeping a close eye on the spells the mages were casting. Oghren, of course was in the thick of things, attacking the biggest hurlock with his fists, hurling it to the ground and stealing its sword before moving to the next one. Nathaniel moved in behind one of the smaller genlocks, emerging from the shadows to snap its neck before disappearing again. He was expecting Eriana to do the same, but she was nowhere to be seen. It took him a moment to figure out why. The moment the fighting began, Anders grabbed Eriana and pulled her close to his side, using one arm to hold her in place while the other cast a myriad of spells, defensive and offensive. Eriana struggled for a while to free herself, but eventually gave up, opting to stand there while the rest of the group took out the remaining darkspawn.

"Anders," she spat once all the creatures were dead and she was freed from his grasp. "What was that?"

Anders looked surprised, "What was what?"

"That sudden testosterone filled display of over protectiveness! Maker's Breath, I thought Oghren was bad, but he's never held me down and refused to let me fight before."

"You were unarmed and wearing clothes that wouldn't stop a hornet's stinger, let alone a sword or arrow. I just thought you needed protection, that's all."

Eriana shook her head and laughed. "Unarmed does not mean helpless, surely you've learned that by now. And no fair using your arcane warrior strength against me; I taught you that!" Anders looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "Thank you for trying to protect me, Anders; I do appreciate the thought, but I have learned a thing or two about protecting myself," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she walked over to where Nathaniel was standing. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just musing on how funny it was to see the Hero of Ferelden cowering behind a man is a skirt, that's all."

Eriana slapped him playfully on the arm, "I wasn't cowering; besides, even if I was, darkspawn can sense me so hiding from them doesn't always work so well for me anymore. And it would have been counterproductive to try to fight Anders while he was trying to kill the darkspawn; it would have just distracted him and he may have zapped you instead." Nathaniel laughed. "Oh, shut up. Let's get out of here before that creepy emissary knows we're gone."


It took them most of the night (according to Oghren's stone sense they had been unconscious most of the day) to work their way through the rest of the Architect's network of caves, but fortunately, they were able to recover their possessions along the way. They also gained another Warden as well. His name was Keenan, and they came across him as they were recovering the last of their possessions. He was one of the Orlesian Wardens who had been abducted from Vigil's Keep only two weeks before; the darkspawn had kept him there since them. When they found him, his injuries had been severe, but Anders and Velanna were able to patch him up enough to get him out of the tunnels. He had insisted that they leave him, trying to give them a ring to pass along to his widow, but Eriana had been adamant about saving him.

"Look Keenan, there are four of us in this part of the country. Four. We need you and your experience more than you could imagine. Besides, Anders is one of the best healers I've ever worked with; if anyone can patch up that leg, he can. So you just hold on to that ring, and you can give it to your wife in person." She glanced over at Anders whose hands were still glowing as he moved away from the man.

"I've done what I can for now. His body will need to heal some on his own, but this should get him out of the caves alright, assuming of course that we don't run into anything big."

Nathaniel sighed to himself. He hadn't known the elf for too long, but he'd known her long enough to realize that where she was concerned, if something could go wrong, it often did. Sure enough, they were all able to make it safely out of the caves only after they killed a pair of, as Oghren put it, young, easy to kill, dragons. Nathaniel wasn't sure about the easy to kill part, but Eriana and the dwarf seemed to know exactly how to go about effectively taking down a dragon. As they left the cave, he asked her about it.

"How many dragons does that make for us, Oghren; four…five?"

"Hum, there the archdemon, that's one. Then there was the one in Haven that you made us go back to fight."

Anders looked down at them, "You went back to fight it, meaning you sought it out?"

Eriana grinned, "Yeah, we figured we could use the practice; after all, we didn't want to go up against the archdemon having never fought one." Anders shook his head muttering something about crazy Wardens. "Then there was Flemeth, but in our defense, we had no idea she would change into a dragon. One minute it was, 'Oh I'm a crazy old lady,' and the next there's a huge dragon standing over us."

"Wait, wait, wait, Flemeth?" Nathaniel said. "The Flemeth, the one the stories are about? You killed her?"

"Yeah, we traveled with her daughter during the Blight; she was a real bitch."

"Flemeth or the daughter?"

Eriana and Oghren looked at each other and grinned. "Both," they said together.

"Whatever," Nathaniel muttered, agreeing with Anders's assessment for a moment. "So how are we going to get home? There's no way Keenan will be able to walk all the way there; and we will never be able to carry him."

Eriana seemed unconcerned. "I figured we'd take one of those carts that the merchants left behind. Several of them were left unharmed by Velanna's attacks."

"I guess that would work, but we don't have a horse. What are you going to do, make Oghren pull it?"

"Watch it Howe," Oghren growled.

"No," Eriana laughed. "I had something else in mind." She closed her eyes and began to mutter something in a language Nathaniel didn't quite understand. When she finished, a large bear appeared on the edge of the woods, making its way slowly toward them. Eriana reached out and hand and stroked the side of the massive beast's neck. "I thought we could use him."

Slightly crazy or no, Nathaniel had to admit, she had a way of getting things done, and that intrigued him more than he cared to admit. They quickly loaded Keenan into the cart and attached a makeshift harness to the bear and were about to leave when Velanna stepped forward.

"I'm coming with you."

Eriana sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that. Why do you want to come with us?"

"You left my sister with that thing, and I'm not just going to leave her down there. You say Wardens can sense darkspawn; make me a Warden so I can find her."

"Valenna, being a Warden isn't like learning a spell that you can use occasionally. It is a life that you agree to commit to; it's a change that happens to you, something that you can never take back."

"If it helps me find my sister, I don't care; it's worth it."

Eriana shrugged, "Alright, I'm never one to pass up a willing recruit. Climb in the wagon and help Anders keep an eye on Keenan." She looked at Nathaniel and motioned for him to join her as she walked alongside the bear.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea, Commander? I mean she did kill all those people."

Eriana shrugged, "That doesn't matter with the Wardens, our past and all that. Besides, I'm tired of arguing with her; it's as productive as arguing with this bear and a lot less fun."

Nathaniel laughed, "I guess it's wrong to hope the Joining kills her."

Eriana fought back a grin, "You know, normally I would scold a Warden for such a statement, but since you're new at this, I'll let it slide, just this once." She glanced up at him, "and the fact that I'm kinda hoping for the same has nothing to do with it. Now, let's get home. I can't wait to see Varel's face when we roll into the Keep like this."


I know there are a few AU things going on here, especially Nathaniel's personality. The way I see it, though, if Nate willingly joined the Wardens after finding out what happened with his father, he wouldn't be quite as angry and angsty as he is when he's conscripted. Also, I got a bit tired of just letting people die when I have a healer beside me who can take care of it, so I decided to save the Warden in the caves.

I also changed a few of the story settings, since Nathaniel will be playing a more vital role in the story.

Anyway, I hope Santa was good to all of you! Thank you for your continued reading and support. Thanks to my reviewers, Fairy, Kainen-no-Kitsune, and Jen4306. And as always, a special thanks to those who added faves and alerts, Seekergirl Keaton, Fairy, and Glamasaurus.