Tylis' trip from the Fade back to his own world proved to be just disorientating as going into the Fade had been. He found himself laying on his back and staring up into the misty, damp, and completely dark sky of Blackmarsh, and he wasn't sure if his eyes had been closed, or if his mind had just clicked back on again as he entered the mortal plane once more. Tylis said up, touched his pounding head which was still reeling from the experience and groaned. He had a brief moment of panic when he realized that Revas wasn't in his hand, but half a second later he found it laying in the mud close by. Next he heard a low grunting noise by a bass voice which mumbled something that was probably meant to be a curse in the Chasind language, and looking around he located Mhairi and Nathaniel as well, both of them trying to recover their balance and rise back to their feet.

Next there came the unpleasant sound of darkspawn growls, as well as the pulsing Warden sense in his forehead. Tylis pushed himself to his feet at the same time the First did. Tylis began to summon is magical powers and the blue runes on Revas came to life.

"Wait!" The First said in its odd sounding voice. The forked greatsword in one hand, the other hand held out in parley. "We do not to be fighting anymore, human Warden… Our fight is not with you anymore. Our fight is with the Mother! She left the First and his brothers to die in the Fade with you! We will have vengeance!"

Before Tylis could answer, Mhairi did. "No deal darkspawn!" She shouted. "I promised Justice that I would see justice done! You killed a Warden, and now you will pay!"

Tylis couldn't have said it better himself. The darkspawn still outnumbered the Wardens, but with all the darkspawn that had been killed in the Fade it could now be considered a fair fight… fair meaning that it looked as if Tylis and his three Wardens all had a good chance of surviving. "Keep them away from me!" He ordered as the darkspawn started to charge. "I can paralyze them all, but I need time to prepare the spell!"

None of the Wardens gave a vocal acknowledgment, but they carried out his orders. Nathaniel standing by Tylis' side and firing arrows into the darkspawn who managed to move around Saezon and Mhairi. Saezon once more throwing himself at the First and leaving Mhairi to deal with everything else. Tylis drew a circle in the air with his finger, then began touching various places inside the imaginary circle that corresponded with the darkspawn locations, just as he was finishing the groundwork of the spell and began to pour actual magic into the spell, he lost his concentration and standing up became a task of sheer willpower. Almost immediately Tylis realized that he'd been hit with a disorientation spell, and he caught sight of a darkspawn emissary, cackling with laughter.

Nathaniel also saw what was happening, and swung his bow towards the darkspawn mage, firing an arrow at its lightly armored chest, but the arrow bounced off an arcane shield three feet before it reached him. Then the emissary turned its attention to Nathaniel, and holding out its own corrupted staff, a stream of fire burst from the metal cap that covered the end of the staff. It was all that Tylis could do to move the two steps that he needed to get in front of Nathaniel and held his own weapon out in front of him like a shield. "Ut ab uno ad aliud!" Tylis forced the words out, he needed the words to focus the spell since his mind was still so scattered. The darkspawn's arcane flames met Revas, and the power of Tylis' spell converted the flames back into raw magic energy which was absorbed into the lyrium core of the weapon.

Tylis shoved Nathaniel away from him, and still staggering from the disorientation spell, he said "Help the others, I'll take care of this!" Tylis took a moment to finally purge the darkspawn's spell, and sensing that the emissary was already about to cast another spell, Tylis began his own, which was actually a combination of two primal spells. There was more than enough mud around and Tylis gathered some of it into a ball that probably weighed a hundred pounds or more, his second spell heated it to several hundred degrees, and the he sent it hurtling towards the emissary. The darkspawn canceled whatever spell it had been building and raised its shield again, the superheated mud impacted the shield and splattered in all directions. Tylis had been expected it to do just that, and then when the darkspawn lowered its shield, Tylis reached out for the remnants of mud that were still flying through the air and redirected them back to the emissary, and the boiling hot mud covered all the darkspawn's head, and the emissary howled in pain, dropping its staff and clawing at the scalding mud.

"Got you!" Tylis shouted happily, and he held his free hand towards the darkspawn, his hand open, then he rolled his fingers into a fist, mentally casting an entropic spell, which caused the emissary's heart to explode.

Saezon raised his weapon above his head and blocked the greatsword on the haft of his weapon, then angled it to one side and hit the First in the head with the pommel of his weapon, and when the First recoiled form the blow he swung the hammer side of his weapon into its chest. The first staggered backwards, but any real damage was stopped by the heavy black breastplate. The First struck back, catching Saezon's weapon in the fork of its greatsword and twisting. It was the second time that the First had tried such a tactic on Saezon, but this time Saezon opened his hands, allowing his weapon to be ripped away, and then before the First could strike again, Saezon grabbed both of its wrists and held them to one side, not letting the First bring the sword back around towards him, then brought his head backwards and sent it forwards, smashing his forehead into the bridge of its nose.

The First staggered backwards, and tried to pull out of Saezon's grip, but the barbarian refused to let up. Instead, Saezon let go with one hand, still holding firm to the darkspawn's right arm and he began to hammer the First's already broken face with his fist.

Finally the First relented and dropped the sword, freeing its own left hand. The armored gloves that the First wore ended with sharpened fingertips, and it dug those fingers into Saezon's unarmored midsection. Saezon grunted in pain, but he still refused to let go of the First's right arm and he punched it again. The First lunged closer to Saezon, and pushed deeper into Saezon's stomach. The Chasind warrior gasped in deeply in pain, and finally released the First. Predictably the darkspawn went for its sword, and rather than go for his own weapon, Saezon kicked the First in the head and sent it sprawling.

Saezon then stooped and picked up the First's greatsword and after kicking the First two more times, breaking its skull on the second kick, Saezon raised its weapon above his head and drove it down through its throat, killing it and pinning its body to the ground.

"Weak!" Saezon yelled at the corpse. "Hardly worth fighting!" Then he twisted to the side and grunted in pain as he felt a darkspawn arrow fly into his chest. Without hesitation, Saezon ripped the arrow out and looked for the offending archer. He quickly located it, notching another arrow. Saezon roared in a manner that sounded unsettlingly like a bear and charged the genlock archer, himself still unarmed.

Nathaniel shot the last hurlock in the chest, but before the darkspawn could die from the wound, Mhairi cut its throat wide open, and it crumpled to the ground. The two junior Wardens as well as Tylis looked to find Saezon spear the darkspawn with his own body, driving it to the ground. "Weak!" Saezon yelled again as he grabbed the genlock by the jaw and the back of its head and twisted hard, breaking its neck like a matchstick.

As Saezon stood up, he looked at his newest wounds and touched the blood that flowed from his chest where the arrow had struck him. Then he looked at his fellow Wardens and grinned. "Do not worry about me." He said happily. "The arrow missed my tattoo."

Three pairs of eyes all moved to Saezon's chest, and they saw that the arrow had indeed missed one his predominant bear's footprint tattoos on the left side of his chest.

"Are you serious?" Mhairi asked after several seconds of stunned silence. "That arrow could have hit your heart, but you're worried about your tattoo?"

"Yes." Saezon answered, and he didn't sound the least bit sarcastic.

Tylis was trying to figure out if it was another of Saezon's odd jokes when he asked. "Why don't you wear armor?"

"I do not need it." He answered. "And I can move faster without it. Most Chasind do not wear armor."

"Why not?" Tylis asked, and immediately felt like an idiot for asking.

Saezon grunted and lowered his voice to emphasize his annoyance as he answered, "Because we do not need it, and because it slows us down."

Several more seconds of awkward silence followed before Nathaniel said, "So what happens now, Commander?" He looked at the dead body of Kristoff again. "We have his body, as well as any notes he had."

"Not only that." Tylis said, "But we've discovered a new kind of darkspawn, and we've found out there are at least two tribes of darkspawn in the arling, and they apparently both have talking darkspawn?"

"How do we know that?" Mhairi asked.

Tylis explained. "The talking darkspawn that led the attack at Vigil's Keep referred to its leader as a male. But the First's leader was the Mother."

"Something else about these grubs." Nathaniel said, putting in his own two bits. "In the Fade, I saw one of them eating a dead darkspawn." The other Wardens all stared at him.

"Darkling eating darkling?" Saezon repeated. "Why would they do that?"

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "Do I look like a darkspawn to you? I didn't stop to ask, and the damn grub never told me. I only killed it."

"Commander Tylis." Mhairi said, abruptly changing the subject. "What about the Baroness, the demons, and all the villages that passed through the Veil with us? We still need to deal with them."

Tylis didn't know what to say. By nature he wanted to help them, and a blood mage as powerful as the Baroness was could cause a lot of problems for everyone in the entire region. But there were only four of them in the region, and even if the villagers could be found then we would still likely lose. Tylis wasn't an idiot, and he knew that it was Justice who'd been carrying them through the battle. Not to mention that they were Grey Wardens, and there was a something very big going on with the darkspawn. Right now it was just the arling of Amaranthine that was in danger, but Tylis knew well enough how darkspawn threats could grow, and this one could potentially become large enough to threaten the entire kingdom!

This was unsettlingly like the blight. And Tylis couldn't help but to wonder if this was either the fifth blight still going on, or if it was the start of the sixth blight. He didn't think that two blights would happen so close to each other, but anything was possible.

"We will help them." Tylis finally announced. "But not today. We need to stay focused on our mission. We need to get Kristoff's body back to the Vigil, and then plan our next move from there."

"But Commander… I promised Justice that I—"

"Mhairi…" Tylis said quietly. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be. We're not in any condition to deal with someone as powerful as the Baroness is. I'm good but I'm not that good, but as soon as we get back to the village I will write to the Circle of Magi and have them send a contingent of templars, they're better equipped to handle this than Wardens, since there is a blood mage and demons involved, then the templars will be obligated to respond."

"I…" Mhairi's face fell. "I understand, Commander."

Tylis nodded gratefully. "Thank you." He looked back to Kristoff's body, "Now help me…" His voice trailed off. Something had changed about the corpse, and after a few seconds he realized what was different. When they'd first found Kristoff's body, it had been laying on its back, head turned to one side. Now the head was face up, and the eyes that had clouded over in death were staring blankly up at the sky… and then they blinked. The jaw opened and closed, and a hand encased in heavy Warden armor touched the face. Tylis, Mhairi, and Nathaniel all slowly started to back away. Saezon was still standing over the body of the genlock he'd killed, but he still swore in his native tongue and touched his bear tattoos.

Kristoff's body stood up and slowly turned in a circle, then slowly reached up again and ran the fingers of both hands over his face again. "No…" He said, but it didn't speak the Orlesian accent that they all expected. "No, no, no! This is… I am… in the mortal world!" The voice was deep and authoritative sounding, slightly different than how they'd all heard it before, but it was unmistakably the voice of Justice.

"The Spirit of Justice?!" Mhairi said in surprise. "But… how? You said that you could not come to our world."

"I did not mean to." Justice answered. "I have no idea how this happened! I was closing the breach and was going back to my own realm, but now… I am here. I do not know, nor understand why and it is not right!" He looked at his new hands. "And I am in the body of a mortal now!" Justice sounded like he was going to say something else, but instead only looked around again, but this time with purpose.

"She is here!" Justice said angrily. "I can feel her presence."

"The Baroness?" Mhairi asked.

"Yes. But not as you remember her." The spirit answered cryptically, then explained himself. "When the Baroness finally showed herself back in her own realm, I could sense two entities. One was that of a mortal, the second belonged to a Demon of Pride."

A few seconds of horrified silence followed, and Tylis was the one to break it. "So… you're saying that the Baroness was possessed?"

"Yes." Justice answered immediately. "I suspect that when the mortals set fire to her home, she knew that she could not prevail against all of them, and so she made a deal with Pride, and it was the demon who first sundered the Veil. I suspect that deal included that the Baroness would remain in control of herself until the Veil could be breached once more, and then Pride would fully possess her.

"I believe that the Baroness never intended to open the Veil, it was merely an accident, but once it happened she believed that it was her best chance of survival and took it. If my assumptions are correct, the Baroness is no more. We now face a Demon of Pride."

Tylis swallowed hard. He was far from being a demonologist, and since his skill in spirit magic had always been lacking at best, he'd had little interest in the Fade itself, but he still knew about the Fade, and he knew that pride demons were the strongest of all demons. He'd faced one himself at Kinloch Hold when he and his old friends had been saving the Circle. The demon had been so powerful that no one could even get close to it, and it had taken Morrigan, Wynne, and himself, combining their power in a very unorthodox strategy to bring it down.

"If a pride demon has really crossed over," Tylis said, "Then we need to bring it down now. It only took one pride demon to nearly destroy the Circle of Magi. I don't even want to think about what would happen if a pride demon became loose in the open world like this."

"Then you will help me once again?" Justice asked hopefully.

"Yes." Mhairi and Tylis both answered simultaneously.

Saezon chuckled at the thought of another good fight as he walked back to the body of the First and pulled the forked greatsword out of its corpse. He would keep it as a trophy.

"Again, I thank you." Justice said, nodding at them. "This body I inhabit is not that of a mage as you call them, and my powers are quickly failing. I still have some magic left however so I can temporarily enchant your weapons so that they might truly harm a demon."

Tylis said, "So you're saying that if we kill the demon, then we will truly kill it, not just banish it back to the Fade?"

"That is correct."

Tylis nodded, and Justice began to cast what was possibly the last spell he would ever cast, as he did, Tylis looked around at his companions. Mhairi looked very pleased with the outcome, Nathaniel was unreadable as always, and Saezon tried to look relaxed, Tylis could see the determined spark in his eyes however.


Roaran and Endrin both tried to convince Sigrun to stop and eat something before drafting the letter to Orzammar, but Sigrun would hear none of it and demanded that the letter be written immediately. So the three of them sat down together in one of the smaller rooms of the Vigil along with the supplies they needed.

"There's something I guess I should mention." Sigrun said, looking at the blank parchment.

"Lemme take a guess." Roaran said. "You can't write?"

"Oh no, I can write." Sigrun said cheerfully. "Just not very well. I only learned how to read a few months ago, and writing is a lot harder."

Both the dwarves looked to Endrin, who was in the process of eating an apple. She stopped with the fruit halfway to her mouth and arched an eyebrow at Roaran. "Score one for Sigrun, zero for Roaran." She chuckled quietly and bit into the apple, chewing twice before she noticed that both her companions were still staring at her. Her mouth was full when she said, "Oh fime…" Endrin said, then she held up a finger for a pause to finish chewing and swallow. "Oh fine." She clarified, and moved behind the small writing desk, dipping the quill in the inkwell and holding it over the paper. "What do you want to say?"

"Well since he's a Paragon and everything you should probably start out with something official sounding… something like, 'To the Paragon and Warden Commander of Orzammar, Dharr Aeducan'."

Endrin wrote down the heading, then looked up for Sigrun to continue.

'I am now the sole survivor of my unit. Most of the others were killed inside Kal'Hirol, and everyone else was caught and killed as we tried to escape into the Deep Roads. I was very lucky to have been rescued before the spawn could drag me away, but you're not going to believe that it was your old Warden friends, Endrin and Roaran who saved me!

Do not attack Kal'Hirol! You would need the all of Orzammar's forces, as well as the Legion to even stand a chance of victory, and even then the losses would be heavy. There is at least one broodmother in the great thaig, probably more than one. We didn't see any ourselves, but the Legion has dealt with broodmothers before, so we know the signs of one. Broodmothers are not the only problem that waiting for you in the thaig. The spawn have also taken control of the golems that rested there, and wont' hesitate to use them against intruders. As if that isn't enough, Kal'Hirol houses a horde of the spawn themselves.

They're breeding an army down there! At first I thought that they planned to attack Orzammar itself, but from what your old friends up here on the surface world tell me about what's been going in their world, I'm not sure anymore. Endrin and Roaran both think that the blight could still be going on, although none of us know how with the Archdemon being dead.

I will report back in person as soon as I've had a chance to rest and recover from my injuries. I have to recruit more Legionnaires and rebuild my scouting unit.

~Sigrun, Scout of the Legion

P.S. Endrin had to write this for me. She said that she misses you and would welcome the chance to see you again, but she won't go underground to do it, and she said that you know why. Roaran said to say thank you for what you did for his family. I think he's funny, even if he's crazy… and now he's looking at me like I'm the crazy one for saying that!'

Once the letter had been finished, and Sigrun signed it, Endrin folded it twice and sealed it with the wax symbol of the Grey Wardens, then placed it inside a leather case, picked up her apple and made for the door to locate a messenger.

"So what's next?" Roaran asked as he stood up.

"Food." Came the one word response.

Roaran laughed and motioned for Sigrun to follow him. "Come-on." He said happily, "Time for a pantry raid. The only catch is that the cooks will be in there preparing supper for everyone, so we're gonna have to be all subtle-like."


Endrin emerged from the keep and was greeted by the sound of metal on metal. For the second day in a row now, Sten was filling in the absent role of Master-at-Arms, and was leading the soldiers training with gusto. For the moment he had them paired up and sparring with each other, only Sten had laid down wooden boards making several fighting rings ten by ten feet square, the purpose being that it forced them to learn how to fight in smaller spaces. If the fighters put so much as an inch of their boot outside of the makeshift fighting rings, then they would feel his wrath. When the big qunari saw his kadan emerge from the keep, he made his way to her.

"Endrin." He greeted her simply.

"Hello Sten." Endrin smiled up at him, then leaned to one said and made a rough guess of how many soldiers were on the training ground. "Did we lose a few soldiers?"

"More than a few." Sten answered. "More than half of the soldiers had never even so much as touched a sword in their lives until a few days ago, but the venak hol also have other skills. Two of them were blacksmiths assistants, one was an aspiring physician, one had been a horse trainer, and three had been carpenters, there were others as well that I had reassigned to tasks they were more suited for. There were others with no apparent skills, but I thought they showed a modicum of talent with a blade, so I am attempting the impossible with them and trying to train them. And yet there were more still who appeared to have no talent with… anything."

Endrin arched an eyebrow. "And what did you do with them?"

"I sent them home, obviously."

"What does 'venak hol' mean?"

Sten thought for a moment before answering. "There is no accurate translation, but it is used as an insult for one who annoys me. I find it perfectly fitting given the situation."

"I see." Endrin answered, trying to keep form laughing, she'd always enjoyed Sten's blunt honesty, and thought that on occasion he could be quite funny without even meaning to, like he was doing now. "So this venak hol who said he was a horse trainer, he's a good rider, yes?"

"He claimed to be the best in the arling. Whether that is true or not I do not know."

Endrin smiled again. "In that case I need to find him. I need him to take a message to Orzammar."

"He should be in the stables."

Endrin started making her way towards the stable, and Sten immediately fell in behind her, leaving his soldiers to continue sparring with each other.

"Human!" Sten called when the trainer came into view, and the man looked like he could have jumped out of his skin.

Again, Endrin had to do her best not to laugh. "What is your name?" She asked the young man.

"Aramis, Warden Mahariel."

"Aramis." She repeated. "Sten tells me that you can ride a horse quite well."

"Very well!" He said, his fear of Sten forgotten and now he was absolutely beaming. "I'm the best rider in the arling! Won several competitions myself a few years ago, then I decided I just wanted to train them."

"So then how did you end up in the army?"

"Simple." Aramis shrugged. "I was drafted. Can't say I'm disappointed to be back with the horses again."

"Perfect!" Endrin grinned, and showed him the leather case that held the letter and said, "I need you to deliver this to Orzammar. Don't give it to anyone other than the Grey Warden Dharr, he's the Warden Commander over in Orzammar."

"Orzammar!" The trainer was beaming again. "That's on the other side of Ferelden! I wonder if there's a speed record for that just yet…" Then before either Endrin or Sten could answer, he said, "Well, even if there isn't I'm going to set one! Just give an hour or so to pack and make preparations, and I'll be on my way."

"Perfect." Endrin said again to his back as the eager Aramis disappeared. As soon as he was gone, she turned her attention to a reddish colored mare who she'd named 'Tanaan', meaning 'Swift' in her language. Endrin had never rode Tanaan, nor any other horse. She found the way that humans broke both a horse's mind and will before they would ride it to be appalling.

When she had been a da'len, she'd learned to ride a halla. Unlike humans, Dalish did not break their mounts. Both the halla and the rider alike had to learn to work with one another, and it was a give and take relationship for both. While the halla would faithfully take their rider where they wanted to go, it only happened when their rider treated them with respect, and even as their equal. The halla served as moth guides and mounts to their Dalish friends, but it was because they wanted to, not because they were forced to.

Regardless of the difference between Dalish and shemlen, horse and halla, Endrin still liked the horses, and for some reason was drawn to Tanaan. Maybe later that day the two of them would walk along the river again. Endrin hoped being in the open countryside, and free from both rider and reins would help to restore some Tanaan's free spirit.

"Warden?" A voice that Endrin didn't recognize called, and she looked up from the horse to find one their sentries standing at the door of the stable with a human woman. "She asked to see the Grey Warden Kristoff. I don't know him, so I thought that it would be better to bring her to you."

"Thank you." Endrin nodded, and the sentry to his duty. "My name is Endrin." She started. "For the moment at least I'm in charge of the Vigil. You said you're looking for Kristoff?"

"That's right." The woman said. "I am Aura, and Kristoff is my husband. I only recently arrived for Orlais, but Kristoff did not meet me in the city as he said he would. Is he here now, or is he still in on his assignment?"

Endrin motioned for Aura to follow her, and with Sten following as well they made their way towards the keep. "Kristoff is still on his assignment, I never met him myself, but I expect he'll be coming back soon." Endrin said, hoping it was the truth, or at the very least that Tylis would be able to come back and shed some light on the situation. "You're welcome to stay here until then, we have more than enough room."

"I believe I will." Aura answered.


Even though the fog was just as bad as it had been before their little trip to the Fade, and it still prevented them from seeing very far. Justice seemed unhindered by the poor conditions as he led the four Wardens through the marsh, in fact he was almost running, Kristoff's mace in one hand, and the dead man's shield on his opposite arm.

Tylis found it somewhat unnerving that he was now following the lead of a dead-man. Walking corpses were nothing more than a dead person whose body had been reanimated by a Fade spirit, but every one of the undead he's encountered so far had been demon possessed, he'd never even heard of corpse being possessed by one of the benign spirits. At the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder if it really was Justice inside of Kristoff's body, or if it was the one of the demons that he was more used to dealing with. Mhairi certainly believed that it was Justice, and Tylis couldn't find any reason why it shouldn't be the Spirit of Justice, but it was still enough to make him wonder.

Ahead of the group, the first of the ruined skeletons of the buildings began to emerge, and farther back in the deep fog rose up the form of something that was so big it could have only been the Baroness's mansion itself, despite the fact that it had been burned down to its foundation a century ago. Justice and the four Wardens behind him came to a stop as they saw one of the town's original inhabitants sitting with his back against the decayed remains of a wooden rail fence. Part of his face and neck had been scorched black, and his armor had been torn open in several places, and likewise scorched. Tylis didn't recognize him, but Justice apparently did, and knelt on one knee in front of the man.

"Do not fear me. I am Justice, come to the mortal world."

"Yes…I can see you." The man said. "But how?"

"I do not know. What happened here?"

The armored man laughed quietly, and they all saw droplets of blood fly from his mouth as he did. "We came home!" He answered, and they could all tell from his voice that although he was in tremendous pain, he was also happy. "But the demons followed us. We fought…" He coughed again, and more blood came from his mouth. "The demons died…" His eyes started to grow more distant. "And we died. But I'm home now… we're all… home." The man took his last breath, and his body started to slide down into mud. "Thank you Justice…for everything you did… thank…" What was left of his breath came out in a slow exhale, and he fell into the mud at the bottom of the fence.

Justice reached out and closed his eyes with two fingers. "We will end the demons and the Baroness." Justice said quietly. "Your soul will know justice." He stood and led the way through the ruined village as if he was being drawn by some unseen force towards the newly restored mansion. The only time he ever stopped was to close the eyes of another dead person. There were no bodies of demons, but that meant nothing since they would have vanished back to the Fade upon their defeat.

After a few more minutes, Justice and the Wardens once more reached the gates of the mansion, and Tylis experienced a feeling of déjà vu when he saw the people who were presumably the only survivors of Blackmarsh standing around the closed gate, but it looked like only half of them had managed to survive. One of them was the red-headed woman with the greatsword that Tylis recognized from the Fade. "Justice," She said, as if expected him. "Wardens, you've returned. Good. We've all been waiting for you."

Tylis looked from the woman to Justice, then back to the woman. "Wait, just hold on a minute!" He demanded. "How do you know this is Justice?"

The woman looked at Tylis as if he was blind. "Because I can see him, obviously. He's standing right in front of me."

Now Tylis, as well as his Wardens were thoroughly confused. "But he… He doesn't look like the same spirit." He answered.

"Yes he does." She immediately countered. "I would know Justice anywhere, we all would!"

It took several moments before Tylis started to get an idea of what had happened. The villagers of Blackmarsh had been in the Fade for so many years that it had begun to affect them in rather unusual ways. Apparently they could see the true soul of a person, and so they were not put off by the mask of dead flesh that Justice now wore, they could see him for what and who he truly was.

The greatsword wielding woman continued. "We tried to kill the Baroness once before when we burned down her mansion. Now we've come back to finish the job! And now that you're here with us once more, we just might stand a chance."

"Then our goals are the same." Justice answered. "But my powers in this world are all but gone, while the powers of the demons have remained the same. I cannot promise that I will be able to protect you."

"We don't ask for your protection." Another of the villagers asked, this one a middle-aged man without armor, his only weapon looked to be a woodcutter's axe. "We wanted our lives back, now we have them, but we will never truly be free of the Baroness until she is dead! She will die, or we will die trying to bring her down!" At the man's proclamation, the villagers all began voicing their agreement.

"Thank you my friends." Justice answered, and then he looked back to Tylis. "Grey Warden, if you would open the gate?"

Tylis momentarily closed his eyes in concentration, and at the same time he opened them the iron gate was blasted into slinters which fell into a heap with a jingling sound. Justice led the way as the small army entered the courtyard. Once past the threshold of the gate however the fog instantly seemed to lift, and they saw the two desire demons from the Fade on either side of the mansion's double doors, as well as the few hunger and rage demons that had survived the battles both inside and outside of the Fade. As if on cue, the doors flew open, and the Baroness emerged in all her cruel beauty.

"At long last!" The Baroness said in her heavily accented voice. "I have crossed the Veil! I should thank you Justice, because without you and your interference it would have never been possible!"

"Enough demon!" Justice challenged, readying his shield in front of him. "Show me your true face that I might end you once and for all!"

"So speaks the spirit who has stolen the face of another!" The Baroness purred. "First, my minions and I shall put an end to you." As she finished the sentence she began to change, her lustrous black hair receding back into her scalp, and her fingers growing into claws. When she spoke again her cultured, Orlesian voice began to shift into a basso, multi-toned voice so that it sounded as if two or three people were talking at once. "The spirits of the Fade will watch in envy as the mortals of this world bow down before me!"

A red haze seemed to envelope the Baroness as the transformation continued, and when it cleared a fully-fledged, twenty foot tall Demon of Pride stood before them. In terms of its shape, the demon was the same as the one that had possessed Uldred, only the coloring was different. While Uldred's demon had been violet hued, with the ridges of his chitinous armored hide tinted black, the Baroness's demon was black, and tinged with crimson. The pride demon stepped towards the group, and its alien sounding voice ordered once again, "Kill them all! But leave the mage alive, I have use for him!"

Tylis instantly activated his combat magic spell, and felt the rush of arcane power flooding through him. He found his first target to be one of the desire demons, as it cast a wave of cold at one of the villagers and he fell to his knees, entire sections of his skin turning into ice. Tylis readied a fire spell, and once more using words to directly focus the spell, he unleashed it. The ground beneath the desire demon bubbled momentarily, then exploded as a column of fire burst out of the dirt, and the demon screamed as it was engulfed. As the fire disappeared however, the desire demon was revealed to still be alive, its pale skin blackened and burned in places, but still very much alive, its arms crossed in front of it and a yellowish magic shield of some sort having protected it from the blaze. Tylis was in the middle of preparing another spell when the growling hiss of an oncoming rage demon distracted him. Tylis didn't have time to cast a spell at it, or even prepare a defense as the fiery creature held out both hands, a burst of fire emanating from its palms. He only had time to jump out of the way. As soon as hit the ground, Tylis screamed in pain, and it wasn't from the fire, the desire demon was casting a blood magic spell at him, draining his blood through his skin to add to its already formidable power.

There was no counterspell for blood magic, only templars commanded that kind of power. Blood magic did not rely on lyrium, or power from the Fade, it only needed a living host, be it the caster or their victim. Tylis did have something that many people feared was dangerously close to blood magic, entropy magic. Tylis could only hope that the two schools were somewhat related, or his plan would never work, he also hoped that it would work before rage demon reached him.

The sound of roaring bear tore through the air and Saezon charged the blazing demon, the sharp end of his crow's beak tearing through its torso, then again through its head as he brought the weapon back. Saezon gave no one-liner about the demon being weak. The only thing he vocalized was a Chasind warcry as he charged towards Pride, his weapon glowing with heat from having cut through the rage demon.

Tylis was only vaguely aware of Saezon having saved his life, he was too focused on both the pain of having his blood drained, and keeping the mental clarity to cast his own entropic spell of life drain. At first nothing happened, but after two seconds the desire demon's face twisted into confusion and anger. The plan was working, the two spells were closely related after all, and were canceling each other out. Still laying on his side in the mud, Tylis poured more power into the spell as he felt his own pain starting to recede. His life drain spell reached the demon, and it shrieked as it felt its life force being pulled away. Tylis canceled the life drain and instantly cast another entropic spell, this one being one of paralysis, and the desire demon was frozen in place. Tylis left the now helpless demon to be killed by the villagers and looked to find the second desire demon, as their kind were powerful spellcasters and could wreak untold havoc on a battlefield if left alone. He quickly located it and began another primal spell, this time choosing electricity as his weapon.

The pride demon saw Saezon coming and swept a broad arm down at him, but Saezon's choice of speed over armor paid off, and he dove forward out of the way, then rolling as he landed and bringing the armor piercing, and still glowing hot tip of his weapon into Pride's knee, he couldn't reach any higher. The demon took a step back and reached for him with a hand large enough to easily crush him, but Saezon stood his ground and swung with the hammer side of his weapon into the massive palm. Pride pulled its hand away, but almost instantly reached out with its magic, and a wave of icy magic shot out, so cold that Saezon had to struggle just to breathe,

A blast of cold air is little concern to a corpse however, and Justice didn't even slow in his charge as his armor was layered in frost. He ran past Saezon who was on his knees trying to get his breath, then leapt impossibly high, grabbing onto one of the demon's shoulder spikes with his shield hand, and smashing his mace into its chest, but it only bounced off the demon's natural armor, Justice was not discouraged, and only continued to attack until Pride grabbed his armored body and threw him into Saezon, sending both warriors to the ground.

The demon probably intended to finish them both with another spell of some sort, but they would never know since the demon staggered backwards three steps with an arrow protruding from one of its many eyes. Nathaniel still stood by the gateway, and was in the process of loading another arrow which he fired at Pride, but this time the demon was ready, and as it raised a hand to defend its face the arrow only bounced harmlessly off its thick hide. Not put off, Nathaniel reloaded again and fired again as soon as Pride lowered its hand, this time aiming at its throat, and this time the arrow found purchase in the softer flesh. Pride ignored the archer, to something of its size, arrows were little more than pinpricks, and it returned its attention to Justice and Saezon.

Justice was just rising to his feet when he looked up and saw arcane fire growing in both of the demon's hands. The spirit reached down, and grabbing Saezon by his shoulders, bodily tossed him out of the way, then he knelt as low as he could manage, raising the battered Grey Warden Shield over his head. Although he'd lost his ability to cast spells when he came into the body of Kristoff, it seemed that he still had some sort of control of magic forces and he was surrounded by a pinkish aura. When the demon fire encountered the aura it wasn't so much diverted or absorbed, it just ceased to be.

Neither spirit nor demon seemed particularly surprised by the turn of events however, and Pride only brought its wing-like forearm into Justice, sending him flying into the wall that surrounded the manor, then looked back to Saezon, just as the Chasind managed to shake himself from effects of the cold spell. Saezon rose to his feet, his weapon clenched in his hands and he came towards the demon, just as another of Nathaniel's arrows sprouted from its throat. The demon still chose to ignore Nathaniel as he lashed out again, this time at Saezon, and the barbarian threw himself flat against the muddy ground, the clawed demon hand passed over him so close that he felt the air move. The demon roared in frustration, and then the roar turned into a howl of pain, and Saezon looked up to see Pride pull an arrow from the roof of its mouth. Saezon came back to his feet in a second, and still being far too small to properly attack the demon, he threw his weapon at the demon, and the pick-axe like point punched through the armored hide, and suck in the center of its chest. As soon as his crow's beak had left his hands, Saezon took the First's sword from where it had been strapped to his back and resumed his attacks.

Tylis had finally succeeded in killing the second desire demon, or rather, banishing it back to the Fade, and he looked around at the courtyard turned battlefield. The pride demon still remained of course, constantly under attack from Nathaniel, Justice, and Saezon. Mhairi and the villagers themselves were finishing off the few rage and hunger demons that remained, but it hadn't been an easy fight. From the look of it there were less than ten of the villagers left, but the survivors still fought on with single-minded determination.

Just like Uldred's demon however, this demon was unnaturally resilient, and only the most powerful attacks could even hope to cause any damage at all. It had taken Tylis, Morrigan, and Wynne to bring Uldred's demon down, and even then their plan had barely succeeded. And now Tylis was the only mage present, which greatly limited their chances of killing Pride. If they could only knock the thing over on its back… or break its legs, then they might stand a chance, and Tylis started racking his mind about how they could do just that.

Tylis didn't have time to create a complex spell, and the lyrium in his blood was already waning. A stone fist spell might work, but he didn't think he had enough magic energy to muster a stone fist powerful enough to knock Pride over, so that ruled out all of his primal spells, and left only entropy, he couldn't paralyze it, it was too powerful for that, draining its life force would take too long, and would leave him open to a counter attack for too long. A poison gas cloud might work, but would also kill his friends. Try as he might, Tylis couldn't think of a way to victory this time, the demon was just too powerful.

'Wait a second!' Tylis thought to himself. 'It's too powerful, but I can make it weak! But… weakness is one of the simplest entropy spells, and Pride will probably only shrug it off.' Tylis could almost feel their defeat coming. 'Wait another second! The mansion! The Veil is paper-thin there, I just have to get there and draw power directly from the Fade!' Tylis took off running through the battlefield before the thought had even completely left his head. No one tried to stop him, but by that time most everyone was dead already, and those who were still alive were locked in combat.

As Tylis came within the last few feet of the mansion, he mentally braced himself and ran through the still open doors, then he dropped Revas and fell to his hands and knees, screaming in shock as the pure magic of the Fade washed over him, almost instantly he felt his reserves of magic filled, and the sense of euphoria that came with it made him feel like he could take on the pride demon, or any other enemy. And then he shook his head to clear it of the illusion and forced himself back to his feet. He swayed, intoxicated on the magic, and almost fell again as he stooped to pick up Revas, then staggered the few steps back to the door. By the time he made it back outside the mansion, the pride demon was the only demon left, and although Justice, the Wardens, and the villagers had it completely encircled, and several more arrows and other weapons now protruded from its body, Pride was just too powerful to go down.

Tylis gripped his weapon in both hands, holding it under an arm and pointing the blade at Pride, then using his weapon as a conduit to channel his power, Tylis began to cast the spell of weakness, pouring almost his entire reserve of magic into the single simple spell. He felt the massive drain of power as the spell was completed.

The result was instantaneous. The Demon of Pride let out a bellow of surprise as its strength left it, and just before it fell it looked over a shoulder to see a smirking Tylis leaning against the doorway of the mansion. Then Pride fell forward, bracing its colossal body against the mud with its fists. Saezon was on its back in a second, there was no grace to his strokes as he hammered away with the forked greatsword into the demon's back. Justice attacked its head. The demon was under attack from all sides, and its thick, chitinous hide only protected it for so long. Even after it was dead, the assault on its body continued, and so no one was certain who struck the death blow.


In the end there eight Blackmarsh villagers who survived the battle, and they stood shoulder to shoulder with Justice and the Wardens and looked over the graves of the fallen villagers. Of the thirteen survivors only Nathaniel was unscathed, as he had stayed at range with his bow and killed anything that tried to get close to him. The air seemed to hang heavier than before as the battle and the number of deaths was still very clear to all of them. For the villagers the full realization of what everything that had happened hit them extremely hard. They had returned home after a century in the Fade, only to find that their home was gone, destroyed by the ravages of time, and the mansion that they had destroyed was back again, in all its splendor, as if it was mocking them.

"Alright." It was the woman with the greatsword who spoke. "We have one more thing to do before our friends can truly rest in peace." She started heading towards the mansion, and her compatriots followed her.

"What will you do after that?" Tylis called, and she stopped and looked at him.

"I don't really know." The answer came. "We never planned past killing the Baroness and going back home. But now we're here and our home is gone. There's no place in this world left for us."

Mhairi nudged Tylis with an elbow and widened her eyes slightly, encouraging him to continue. Tylis shrugged, and then quickly caught onto her meaning. "There could be a place if you want it." He called.

The woman took a step closer and said, "I'm curious, go on."

"I am a Grey Warden, but I am also the Arl of Amaranthine. We need all sorts of skilled people, soldiers, craftsmen, artisans, you name it. If you and your people want it, then you are all more than welcome to return with us."

She thought for a moment before saying, "First we'll burn the mansion, and then we'll give you your answer. But for now you can call me Seraph, I guess that I'm the leader of those who are left." And with that said she returned to the task of burning the mansion.

Tylis then looked to Justice, who was still looking at the graves in silence. "And what is next for the Spirit of Justice."

"How can I know? I am from the Fade, and have no knowledge of this place." He finally looked up from the graves and back at Tylis. "In the Fade, I lived only seek out injustice and right those wrongs. But here I am all but helpless, I have no magic, and am trapped in the body of a dead mortal."

"But I saw you use magic against Pride, you stopped its fire."

"That was… I cannot describe it. I knew what the demon was doing and I thought only of defense, the magic, if that is what it was did not come by my command. You do not understand, I am a spirit of the Fade trapped in the corpse of a mortal, I am powerless!"

Saezon grunted. Tylis and the other two Wardens were beginning to be able to tell Saezon's mood by the tone of his grunts, and now he sounded insulted. "I am mortal!" He growled. "I was born mortal, and that is how I will die! I never had magic, and I do not want it, but I am not powerless, I am not helpless!"

"Nor am I." Nathaniel offered as well.

Now it was Mhairi's turn. "You don't need to be a spirit, or even have magic to dispense justice. Otherwise you would not have asked me to carry on in your place when I was leaving the Fade."

Justice couldn't think of an answer, and so said nothing.

"Join us." Mhairi said, and then repeated, "Join us! You now inhabit the body of Warden. Come with us, you can continue your quest for justice!"

"Join you?" Justice repeated as well. "The man who owned this body was a Warden…" From the tone of Justice's voice, he wasn't just repeating what he'd been told, it was like he was discovering it for himself. "He was… ambushed by a… a darkspawn, the one you called the First?" He paused and rubbed his jaw. "Yes… this body has memories. The Grey Wardens are the enemies of the darkspawn." Justice rubbed his chin again as he considered it before saying, "Yes, I will come with you. For now at least, if only to honor the Warden Kristoff."

Mhairi and Tylis both smiled at the turn of events. Nathaniel remained neutral as always. And Saezon hefted his weapon on his shoulder again and began his journey back to Vigil's Keep. He didn't even bother looking behind him to see if the others were following him.

Four people had walked into Blackmarsh, and thirteen walked out.


Finally, I get to write a good action packed chapter again! Battle scenes are a specialty of mine, and I hope that you enjoy reading them. About the thing that Justice did to stop the pride demons magic, I really have almost no idea how spirit warriors are supposed to work, and there's next to no information on them, so I'm just kind of making it up as I go. It's also kind of tough for me to write Justice, as he's a spirit and is completely different from any other character I've written so far.

For those of you who are waiting for the return of Eebon and/or Kylae, you won't be waiting for too much longer. They'll both be reappearing pretty soon, I'm not 100% sure, but it might be the next chapter. Stay tuned, and please review. See ya.