Risa's face was grim as she sat at the table with Anders, Oghren, Sigrun, Jowan and Nathaniel. "So we finally managed to translate the journal you guys lifted from the silverite mine when you met that Dalish mage."

Anders nodded. "It's a coded, corrupted form of ancient Tevene. And it talks about how the last Blight actually was started." He looked at Risa uncomfortably. "The Hurlock emissary calls himself The Architect….."

"What?" Oghren snorted.

"You do remember the talking darkspawn we encountered the day you and I Joined, don't you?" Anders shook his head. "Or were you too drunk to notice?"

"Talking, yeah, ok – and that was unbelievable enough. Writin'? That's a whole 'nother level of consciousness…."

"Nevertheless," Risa said, "let's hear what Anders found out."

"Jowan, actually." Anders nodded to his fellow mage. "He's the one who broke the code."

Jowan shrugged sheepishly. "The Architect wants to free darkspawn of the taint, and of being compelled to find and raise Archdemons and cause Blights."

"Well, that sounds promising," Sigrun said cautiously.

"It would be," Jowans said, "…except that his solution is to use Warden blood to – for want of a better word – taint Darkspawn and bring them to this state of consciousness…. And he wants to end the enmity between Darkspawn and surface-kind (and dwarves) by infecting all of Thedas with this Warden-Spawn taint…."

Risa went pale.

"It gets better," Anders said grimly. "The peculiarly close connection you and the king had with the archdemon – it's because the Architect sought him out, woke him, infected him with that tainted Warden's blood – trying to get it to rise without the connection to the darkspawn…."

Risa's brow furrowed, and her lips pressed together in a grim line.

"It is an elegant solution," Nathaniel said thoughtfully, "if it worked…."

"And if ya didn't mind being a tainted monster." Oghren snorted.

Risa blinked. "So the… tens of thousands of deaths, the illness and misery – was all because this Architect wanted to experiment?"

Jowan nodded. "And… apparently some of his 'freed' Darkspawn rebelled. There's two factions fighting here…. The faction beneath the Wending Wood belongs to the Architect. They're the ones who….."

"….Who attacked the Vigil and kidnapped or killed all the Wardens here," Risa interrupted, suddenly understanding.

"Yes. And there also have been agents of his – well, to put it diplomatically, his rival/creation – The Mother."

Sigrun gasped. "The broodmothers in Kal Hirol!"

Risa saw the edges of her vision start to take on a bloody tinge as she fought to keep her rage from breaking forth. "So this is a fucking civil war between darkspawn?"

Anders nodded. "The Mother and her ilk hate being disconnected from the hivemind…. To be honest, it's driving them mad."

Risa looked at her hands. They were balled into fists, and she forced herself to open them.

Genlocks and hurlocks in the Vigil, attacking the nursery. The nursery. She suddenly felt a cold wash of fear race over her – for what would – or could – she have done had Gareth been tainted?

Would she have tried to force the Joining on him? Or…

She closed her eyes, swallowed hard. No. She'd have taken him down to the basement, to the raw stone corridors… she'd have sent him to the Ancestors… and much as she would have longed to have followed moments after, she would have gone to Montsimmard and told his father.

And then she'd have followed Gareth by whatevery means were necessary.

"Risa?" She felt a hand on her shoulder, and for an instant relaxed under it, feeling a different hand, hearing a different timbre. Then she looked up abruptly to see Howe standing over her.

"We kill them. All of them. You said he had a tainted dwarf with him, I think?"

Howe nodded. "Yes. Velanna's sister too – a Dalish."

"All of them," she said again. "So their filth doesn't spread."

"What if it is the beginnings of a solution to the dark-" Jowan started.

"No!" Risa snarled, slamming her fist onto the table. "They all DIE because I will NOT be responsible for letting even ONE person get tainted just to see if it works!"

"Easy, boss…." Sigrun started.

"You know that Dwarvakind is going extinct because of them," Risa grated, and Anders, Howe, and Jowan looked shocked, where Sigrun and Oghren looked away.

"Yes," Risa pressed on, "the great Dwarva secret. Our fertility is below the necessary rate just to maintain the status quo – as a result of being exposed for generations to the taint. We're generally immune to dying from getting infected – because it's already done its worst to us. Another hundred years or three and there might not be dwarves in Thedas anymore.

"I won't let that happen to you cloudheads. They die. All of them. Their twisted experiments, and all."