Damien is known as a very stubborn man. Sayo knew this, and yet, his stubbornness made him go crazy, time and time again. Sayo waited for that special moment when the karma will come to bite him in the ass. Why was this so? Because tonight, Damien had another nightmare, yet this time he screamed so loud Sayo thought the whole Kirkwall could hear him. Again, he didn't say what was wrong; he just stormed out of the room.

Later on, he found Damien sitting in the corner all alone, rubbing his eyes, with a half-empty bottle of rum next to him. He took a seat at the table.

Damien raised his eyes from the mug.

"You know… maybe I will take your advice." He said. He sounded so tired and tortured. "Maybe I'll just go to the Blooming Rose, grab a whore, and fuck her. Maybe then, I'll get some decent sleep."

Sayo couldn't help but chuckle at his words.

"That's not what I meant, but give it a try by all means."

Damien fell silent again, deep in his thoughts.

"Sayo, I think something's wrong with me."

"You don't say."

Damien chuckled. "I mean, more wrong than usual."

He joked, but Sayo knew he was serious. When you are friend with somebody your whole life, you start recognizing those fine nuances where joke stops being a joke.

"Will you tell me, finally, why are you screaming like a little child, whenever you sleep? And who is Percilia? You keep screaming her name."

Damien turned pale at the mention of this name. He let a long sigh. "My sister.", he said. Of course, this shocked Sayo. Damien told him what happened to his family, but he never mentioned a sister.

"That doesn't matter! What matters is I… I hear -"

"Mister Spider!" a young boy, orphan and one of their informants, interrupted them. He looked like he ran all the way here.

Damien looked at him angrily. "What?"

"Hawke...Her mother...Taken..." the boy barely spoke, trying to catch a breath.

Sayo and Damien slowly turned their faces to each other. Sayo put his arm on boy's shoulder.

"Try one more time, but slowly."

The boy took a deep breath to calm himself and spoke again. "Miss Hawke's mother has been taken by a man. There were white lilies delivered earlier today. I stayed and watched the house after they were delivered. Her mother's leaving escaped my notice, but then I saw Hawke run out the house. She asked one of my friends about her mother. Then I figured out what happened, and I ran here to tell you."

Sayo and Damien took a moment to calm themselves after this news. They didn't notice Isabela was in the room, listening to this.

"What are you doing sitting there, you scurvy idiots?! Let's go!" she ran out.

Damien threw a silver coin to his little informant. "Where did they go?" he asked, as informant ogled the money.

"What did ya say?"

"Have carrots in your ears? Where did they go?!"

"Storage house in Lowtown! The one you already investigated."

They ran out, trying to catch up with their Captain.

They ran through the underground hall that smelled like a rotten flesh and blood. Everywhere around them, blood-stained walls reeked and burned their noses. Soaked crates of goods, destroyed by all the dew radiated weird, indescribable smells – probably a mix of different rotten food. Damien felt his stomach twist at smell and could only reckon what will await them when they catch up with Hawke.

The fear awaits!

The creepy whisper laughed again. That voice never left his mind, ever since that nightmare he had, few nights ago. Since then he had a feeling like everything around him seemed to be coming closer and bigger. It made him nauseous, and when he walked it was even worse. Sometimes the colours seemed to be more brighter, almost if they are luminous, making his headache unbearable.

Delicious fear!

As they ran, they reached the strange room. There was a bed, bookshelves, table and books, all around the room. Whole place reeked even worse than hallway, if it was even possible. Maybe because this smell had a sweet, heavy accent of human flesh decay. Damien knew this smell – he killed many people and saw many corpses.

Sayo was stunned by the scene. "Fenedhis! What's that smell? Does he live here?!"

"Lives… and kills. This is some crazy-ass man." Damien replied. His eyes caught up with a big portrait. "Call me crazy, but doesn't this woman look like mother Hawke?"

They all looked at it, silent for few seconds. It looked like a shrine dedicated to a woman that looked like Leandra.

"If I ever make anything this pathetic, do me a favour and stick a dagger in my eye." Isabela joked, but one could hear a worry in her voice. "C'mon, we need to find Hawke!"

As they were running to catch up to Hawke, Damien felt the familiar, eerie buzzing in ears and a strange sense of depersonalization. The walls, candles, everything around him moved in a pulsing rhythm.

Almost there. Almost.

The voice echoed again.

"Will you shut the fuck up!" Damien screamed in his head, trying his best not to throw up.

Another room, same smell. Hawke stood there, along with Varric, Anders and Aveline. Gascard's corpse was lying there twitching, face down on the ground, blood leaping in streams from his throat pierced by a large bolt. Varric just grabbed the bolt and yanked it out. At the far end of the room there stood an elder man, a mage. His face was deeply unsettling. Gaunt cheeks only accented the madness in his eyes with psychotic look, strengthened by redness of his eye whites. It sent shivers down Sayo's and Damien's spine.

Hawke turned to Varric, shocked about something Damien didn't witness, but had something to do with Gascard's corpse.

"What? You were going to do that, right?" Varric asked Hawke, cleaning the blood and yanking bits of tissue from a bolt.

They both turned their attention to the crazy old mage, who gleefully stared at Gaspard's corpse before resuming his attention to Hawke. His crazy look turned into one of determination.

"You will never understand my purpose. Your mother was chosen because she was special, and now she is part of something… greater."

As he said those last words, crazy smile flashed over his lips and he turned the gaze towards the chair, with unsettling infatuated look.

"You're crazy, I get it! Where's my mother?!" Hawke yelled, with an angry glare in her blue eyes.

Old mage proudly smiled, turning another gaze towards the chair as if he observed his lifetime's work.

"She's here. She's waiting for you." He mused, continuing his dialogue after he observed the chair for a moment. "I've done the impossible. I have touched the face of the Maker and lived!"

Hawke shook her head in disbelief. Damien and Sayo both waited in the background, waiting for something to happen, hoping the worst won't come to be.

Damien wanted to turn his gaze away, but another depersonalization hit him like a truck and he heard a voice, whispering in his ears:

Observe, Damien! Look closely!

Damien's had suddenly felt as if someone smashed a bottle on his scalp, as the echoing laughter jumped from one ear to other.

"Fucking headache!" he yelled at himself, not paying any attention to what's going on around him, trying to ease the pain.

Old mage turned around again and said: "Do you know what the strongest force in the Universe is? Love."

These words felt so unsettling coming from his mouth that Sayo clenched his fist, trying hard not to jump on him and punch his face. But he didn't do anything yet, waiting for Hawke's signal.

"I pieced her together from memory. I found her eyes, her skin, her delicate fingers. And at last… her face. Oh, this beautiful face." His moaning voice echoed through the room, causing a nausea.

"I've searched far and wide to find you again, beloved, and no force on this earth will part us!

"Balls!" Isabella's loud gasp brought Damien back to reality.

Sayo felt like throwing up. A zombie-like figure stepped up next to a crazy mage. Every inch of Leandra's skin was sewn together roughly, mismatched in places as though from a different body. Her face was blackened and rotten, eyes as white as two empty and hollow moons. The white dress was covered in blood, torn in places revealing the extent of her torture. Hawke's mouth opened ajar, as she took a step back, shaking. Her eyes welled with tears from horror, as she grabbed her daggers and pulled them out.

"Oh, shit." Varric added, putting another bolt into Bianca.

Corpses sprang out from the ground, probably being there for a very long time. Those corpses wore clothes of soldiers, but some of them belonged to poor people who have died in the slums, forgotten. Blood mage raised his arms, filling their empty bones with restless spirits, summoning hungry shades and demons.

The battle against people would be bloody and glorious. Battles against demons had this darker side to them. Cutting through the unflinching bones that didn't bleed and cry for mercy unsettled both Damien and Sayo. Terror was amplified by the fact of not knowing how long will it take until they drop. Demons were even worse – shades had an ever-changing shape, and only the hit in their soft, somehow squishy cores did them damage, soaking their gloves with a viscous, dark goo.

Still, bones shattered, shades dissipated and finally, Hawke threw her dagger in the skull of the last skeleton and it fell down, unmoving. Mage still gurgled, trying to crawl towards Leandra's corpse.

"Oh no, you won't." Isabela spat on him, raising her leg with an angry scream, stomping on his head and splattering it all over the floor.

Leandra tottered towards Hawke, eyes filling with tears, still maintaining some level of control over the body that didn't even belong to her. Her mouth drooled and she couldn't see, and she would trip had Hawke not yelled: "Mother!" and grabbed her just as she lost the balance and fell on her knees.

"I knew you would come." Leandra whispered. Hawke's eyes welled with tears once again.

"I tried to find you!" Hawke yelled.

Leandra softly smiled:"Shhh. Don't fret, darling. That man would have kept me trapped in here. But now, I'm free. I get to see Carver again… and your father. But you'll be here alone."

Hawke swallowed the tears. "I… I'll be fine, mother." she whispered, trying to reassure her. Leandra was always so worried about Bethany and her – she didn't want her mother to go into grave worrying whether her daughter would be able to cope with the loss, or not. And it worked. Leandra smiled again, clasping her arm.

"My little girl has become so strong. I love you. You've always made me so proud."

With the word proud, the last breath just left her mouth and stayed there. Her empty eyes rolled back and her head drooped.

"Hawke…" Isabela came closer. Hawke just put her head down and her face distorted in pain. She tried hiding the tears but they just broke out and she held her mother's dead body as she sobbed loudly. Both Damien and Sayo just stood there, staring at the scene. Damien's eyes darted from mage's headless body, towards Leandra's corpse and crying Hawke. Varric put the hand on Hawke's shoulder, handing her napkin and smiling.

"There, Hawke. After you felt you've cried long enough, brush those tears and let's find a good memorial service in this shithole of a town."

Hawke looked at her friend with her crying blue eyes.

"Thank you, Varric." Her broken voice sounded so sincere.

Aveline took Hawke back home, while others walked their way to the Hanged Man. No one said a word, still stunned by recent events. Sayo was still in state of shock. He remembered his mother and the brutal way she was murdered. All this time, he thought nothing could come close, yet this… it was just nauseating. He was concerned about Hawke, and how will she ever continue her life after this. And Bethany! How in the Maker's name will they tell her that she lost her mother to necromancy?

They entered the tavern and took a seat at Varric's room. They just drank their ale, still silent. Suddenly, Damien screamed in pain, holding his head like it will split in two.

While everyone was still in state of shock and tried to wrap their minds around the events that happened an hour ago, Damien could only focus on the sickening headache and whispers he heard even more and louder than before. Those whispers were everywhere, making him disoriented. The flashing images of his family, Leliana and Ben, were appearing around him. He felt like he was forcefully pulled into a dream.

Isn't it beautiful? The fear? The despair?

The buzzing made him sick. He felt like he will throw up any second now. He wished the ale will at lease ease the buzzing and headache. But it didn't.

You remembered them, didn't you? When you saw Leandra?

"Shut up!"

Her lifeless body unleashed such tasteful fear inside you! The same fear you feel every night.

"Go away!"

The same fear you feel when you see your sister. When you see your precious Percilia.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He screamed and jumping up form the chair, losing his footing and fell on his knees holding his head that hurt like nothing he ever felt.

"Damie?" Sayo rushed to his friend. "What's wrong?"

"Make it stop! I can't take it anymore!" He burst through his gritting teeth.

"Make what stop? Damien, what is wrong with you?!"

Damien looked at his friend but he didn't saw Sayo. He saw a toothless thug he dreamed about every night. In a split second the unimaginable fear and rage filled his gut. He pulled out his dagger and tackled the man on the ground, ready to slit his throat. Then someone pulled him back.

"Damie!" Isabela screamed. She and Anders held him, pinned on the floor. "What are you doing? Are you insane?"

Damien tried to break free. "Let me go!" The only thing he felt was a dire urge to kill.

"Knock him out!" He heard Isabela's voice. And then everything went dark.